SERMONS 



i ""-"iii i' 



B Y 



REV. JAMES ORSON BRANCH, D.D. 



Oxford, Georgia 
Julius Magath, Publisher 
1909 



3 u^t&t 



Copyright, 1909 
by 

Julius Magath 



© Ui. A :<! 5 ; 798 



INTKODUCTIOK 



I do not understand how any one who knew and heard 
Dr. Branch can fail to welcome the publication of his ser- 
mons. If they are not read with appreciation, it will be 
because the readers have lost their taste for the pure Gospel, 
faithfully, clearly and forcefully presented. 

In my opinion, Dr. Branch was a great Preacher. He 
apprehended, as few men have, the deep and rich things of 
the Gospel. He believed the message thoroughly, experi- 
enced its power experimentally, and delighted to preach it 
to others. The matter, diction and arrangement of his ser- 
mons were above criticism. His thought was original, rich 
and strong. His language was choice, expressive and 
exact. For years his attentive listener, it seemed to me 
that he always used the best word that would express his 
exact thought. I sometimes think that I never heard his 
equal in this respect. 

I loved the man and looked up to him. His influence 
was uplifting and potent. He belonged to the elect few 
concerning whom Drummond spoke when he said, "There 
are some men and women in whose company we are always 
at our best. While with them we cannot think mean 
thoughts, or speak ungenerous words. Their mere pres- 



cnco is elevation, purification, sanctity. All the best stops 
in our nature are drawn out by their intercourse, and we 
find a music in our souls that was never there before. " 

There must be for his published sermons a mission of 
help and usefulness. They go forth to the world backed 
by a life of absolute rectitude — an unselfish, stainless, fruit- 
ful life — and by the prayers of one of the most devoted 
and consecrated of the Defenders of the Faith. 

Samuel B. Adams. 

Savannah, Ga., August 24, 1909. 



CONTENTS, 



L The True Glory of God 9 

II. The Omniscience of God 23 

III. The Omnipresence of God 35 

IV. The Opening of Heaven 48 
V, Fellowship with God 6i 

VI. Personal Influence 78 

VII. Personal Accountability 95 

VIII. Public Opinion and Divine Law 113 

IX. Worldly and Christian Greatness 131 

X. Sonship of Believers 152 
XL The Light of God's Face 166 

XII. The Disciples on the Sea of Tiberius 181 

XIII. The Anointing of Jesus 195 

XIV. The Love of God 207 

XV. Prayer in Affliction 221 

XVI. Divide Providence 233 
XVII. Jesus the Healer of Souls 24i 

XVIII. Working Out Salvation 259 

XIX. Man's True Rest Conditioned ox Per- 
fection 276 

XX. Looking at Things not Seen 290 

XXI. Entire Sanctification 805 



SERMON I. 



THE TRUE GLORY OF GOD. 

"And he said, I beseech thee, show me thy glory. 

"And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, 
and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee." Exodus 
xxxiii: 18-19. 

In view of all that had gone before, this prayer of 
Moses is the most remarkable ever uttered by human 
lips. It indicates spiritual intuitions answering to that 
which is sublimest in the divine nature, a loftiness of soul 
and reach of aspiration unequalled in the history of our 
race. Moses had witnessed such displays of divine wis- 
dom and power and justice, and had received the written 
law amidst such manifestations of divine majesty as would 
have been accepted by any man of common mould as a 
complete unveiling of the essential glory of Godhead. 

His home was in the East, where the beauty and gran- 
deur of natural objects first seduced man into nature 
worship. For forty years he lived a shepherd's life, a 
life of contemplation, passed in the valleys and upon the 
mountain sides. In these solitudes, where the lightnings 
blaze along the sky and the bellowing thunders shake the 
earth; where at sunset and sunrise, the heavens are robed 
in cloud- vestments of crimson and gold; where at night, 
through an absolutely transparent air, the stars shine with 
intensest brilliancy, where the mountains attain their 
grandest proportions, and the valleys are adorned with 
flowers of every hue; here, where nature charms by her 
beauty and awes by her sublimity, Moses had meditated 
1) 



10 



THE TRUE GLORY OF GOD. 



and prayed, living alone with nature and nature's God. 
He had seen the sun come forth as a bridegroom from his 
chamber, robed in the splendors of a thousand Eastern 
mornings. Abidng with his flocks by night he had looked 
up to the overarching firmament, radiant with stars, and 
to him, as to David, the heavens had declared the glory 
of God. Sheltering himself behind the rocks on the 
mountain side, he had witnessed the terrible rush of the 
tornado; had been dazzled by the flashing lightning and 
had heard the God of glory thunder. By day and by 
night the glory of divine majesty and power as seen in 
nature had filled his soul with adoration; but his prayer 
indicates the conviction that the true glory of God had 
never been revealed to him in any phase or voice of 
nature. 

He had witnessed wonderful displays of divine power in 
vindication of divine authority. The right hand of the 
Most High had wrought redemption for Israel in his 
sight. He had seen plague after plague sweep over the 
land of Egypt, humbling the pride and breaking down the 
power of God's enemies. He had seen the Red Sea divide 
and its waters stand like a wall on either hand while the 
Israelites passed over on dry ground. He had looked on 
while the hand of God poured these waters in billows of 
death upon the pursuing hosts of Pharaoh; and there by 
the seashore he had sung, "Thy right hand, O Lord, is 
become glorious in power; and, in the greatness of thy ex- 
cellency thou hast overthrown them that rose up against 
thee. Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods? 
Who is like unto thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in 
praises, doing wonders?" But Moses felt that in all these 



THE TRUE GLORY OF GOD. 



11 



exhibitions of divine power and justice, the essential glory 
of Godhead had not been revealed to him. 

He had stood with the people at the base of Mount Sinai 
when there were thunderings and lightnings and a thick 
cloud upon the mount, and the voice of a trumpet, exceed- 
ing loud, so that all the people trembled. He had seen 
Mount Sinai altogether on a smoke because the Lord de- 
scended upon it in fire ; and the smoke thereof he had seen 
ascend as the smoke of a furnace and had felt the whole 
mount quake greatly. He had gone up into the midst of 
the thunderings and lightnings and the thick cloud ; he had 
received the law from the divine hands that had graven it 
upon tablets of stone; and though the glory of the Lord 
was like devouring fire upon the top of the mountain 
Moses dwelt for forty days in the very midst where the 
glory was. But, in the depths of his soul, he felt that the 
essential glory of God was still hidden from him, and he 
prayed, "I beseech thee, show me thy glory." 

What there was in the nature of God superior to divine 
power and majesty, divine wisdom and justice, Moses did 
not know, but something in the great heart of the man told 
him that, neither in the roar of the thunder, nor in the 
blaze of the lightning, nor in the shock of the earthquake, 
nor in the loftiness of mountain heights, nor in the attract- 
iveness of blossoming valleys, nor in the beauty of starlit 
nights nor in the gorgeous sunrise of Eastern mornings, nor 
in the wonders wrought in Egypt and in the wilderness, nor 
in the glory that was like devouring fire upon the top of 
Mount Sinai, nor even in the perfect law delivered into life 
hands, had the true glory, the holy of holies of the charac- 
ter of God been revealed to him. This conviction 



12 



THE TRUE GLORY OF GOD. 



answered to the fact. The essential glory of God he had 
never seen. His whole soul longed for the vision of it, 
and he prayed "I beseech thee, show me thy glory.' 7 The 
prayer wa3 pleasing to God, and He promised to answer 
it. 

The promise was given in words that must have 
sounded strangely in the ears of Moses; and it is probable 
that he did not at all recognize the fact that these words 
embodied a promise to answer his prayer. "I beseech 
thee, show me thy glory," he cried, and the Lord said to 
him, "I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I 
will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee." 
Whether Moses so received it or not this cannot mean 
anything else but that the glory of God and the goodness 
of God are identical, — that the manifestation of His 
glory and the proclaiming of His name are one and the 
same thing. 

The Lord said to Moses, "Be ready in the morning and 
come up in the morning unto Mount Sinai, and present thy- 
self there to me in the top of the mount. And Moses 
rose up early in the morning and went up unto Mount Si- 
nai as the Lord had commanded him. And the Lord 
descended in a cloud and stood with him there, and 
proclaimed the name of the Lord. And the Lord passed 
by before him and proclaimed — the Lord, the Lord God, 
merciful and gracious, long-suifering and abundant in 
goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving 
iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no 
means clear the guilty." And when this proclamation 
fell upon his ears, accompanied doubtless by a divine 
influence that opened his heart to the fulness of its mean- 



THE TRUE GEORY OF GOD. 



13 



mg, Moses, conscious of the fact that the essential glory 
of God was herein shining upon him, "made haste and 
bowed his head toward the earth and worshipped." 

The glory of God is mercy and grace and long-suffering 
and goodness and truth, the flowering and fruiting of infi- 
nite love, fenced around by the glory of retributive jus- 
tice. The perfect goodness of the Most High, manifested 
in keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and 
transgression and sin, must have a defence because of the 
presumptuous wickedness of impenitent sinners, and the 
defence is this, "I will by no means clear the guilty." 

The glory of God is infinite love centered in perfect 
righteosness, manifesting itself in long-suffering towards 
the weak and ignorant — in compassion towards the poor 
and suffering, in pardoning mercy towards the penitent, 
and in judgment upon incorrigible sinners. 

The sentence in which this truth is proclaimed was 
written thirty-four centuries ago; was written by a man 
who grew up in the idolatrous court of Egypt, and who 
died a thousand years before Grecian philosophy attained 
maturity in the mind of Plato. Considering all the 
facts it is not too much to say that this sentence in the 
book of Exodus is the most wonderful literature of any 
age or of any people. It pierces to the very heart of 
things. It reaches the central fact of all facts. It does 
not pause amidst the sublimest concomitants of divine 
greatness and glory. It passes through the splendid 
outer court of philosophy and the magnificent inner court 
of theology, lifts the veil and enters the holy of holies of 
the heart of God. Filled with adoration of what it here 
beholds, it cries, hear, ye children of men, not infinite 



14 



THE TRUE GLORY OF GOD. 



knowledge, not infinite wisdom, not the possession of all 
power, nor the sovereignty of all worlds, but absolute 
perfectness of character, — that is the glory of the Most 
High. This sentence is the first tone of the scale in 
which all Scripture is written, the fundamental note of 
the chord to which all the modulations of the voices of 
prophets and apostles are referred, the key-note of reve- 
lation. Its spirit breathes in every warning and promise, 
in every prophecy and psalm in the word of God; and 
from Moses to St. John, not one of the sacred writers 
records a single sentence concerning the Most High that 
is not in harmony with this first revelation of His glory. 

There are men, wise in their own conceits, who talk of 
the Bible as an antiquated book, good enough and profi- 
table enough in its day because then in advance of the 
notions generally entertained by the most enlightened 
nations on the subject of religion, but now superseded by 
the amazing development of human intelligence. The 
truth is that the much vaunted culture of this generation 
needs to sit at the feet of Moses and learn that the high- 
est, sublimest, divinest thing is not knowledge, nor 
power, nor genius, but excellency of character. There 
is more of the truth that is essential to the nurture of 
what is noblest and best in our manhood in the one sen- 
tence I have quoted from the book of Exodus than in all 
the writings of Darwin and Tyndal and Huxley, more 
indeed than in all the writings of all the scientists and 
philosophers of all ages. 

There are few among us, Christians though we be, 
whose thought has dwelt long enough in the lofty region 
of this truth to have become naturalized there. We still 



THE TRUE GLORY OF GOD. 



15 



need to train ourselves to identify that which is highest 
in the highest, with that which is sublimest in His char- 
acter; to translate the phrase, glory of God, by the phrase 
perfect love, manifesting itself in perfect righteousness. 

God is almighty, but omnipotence is not of the essence 
of His glory. He has all knowledge, but omniscience is 
not of the essence of His glory. He is the supreme 
Ruler of the universe, but absolute and universal sover- 
eignty does not constitute His glory. Consider the mat- 
ter. If Satan were clothed with all power and were 
possessed of all knowledge and held in his hand the 
sceptre of a universal empire, he would not hereby be 
invested witn the glory of God, or the faintest semblance 
of it. On the contrary, the unlimited increase of his 
dominion and might and intelligence would only make 
his unspeakable bareness the more conspicuous, and 
intensify the contempt and horror with which every noble 
minded being cannot but regard this malignant and 
infamous fiend. But if once he were to become a par- 
taker of the love and the righteousness of God, his archan- 
gelic nature would brighten and shine with the radiance 
of divine glory itself. An infinite intellect standing 
alone, isolated from all moral sentiments and principles, 
would not be glorious, but terrible. An infinite intel- 
lect conjoined to a malignant moral nature, would not be 
glorious, but horrible. And the sacred Scriptures, from 
the beginning to the end, are devoted to the revelation 
and enforcement of the truth on this subject. They 
never identify the divine glory with omnipotence or 
omniscience, but always with the perfections of God's 
character. Divine glory, as the Scriptures uniformly 



1(3 



THE TRUE GLORY OF GOD. 



teach, is one with divine goodness, The sun is the glory 
of the heavens, and the immensities of space which, but 
for his shining would be filled with the blackness of an 
appalling darkness are radiant with light and beauty. 
And the immensities of God's omnipotence and omnisci- 
ence, which illumined by the radiance of grace and mercy 
would be appalling to thought, are all alight, aglow with 
the splendor which is the brightness of His glory? 

You need to guard yourselves against, separating be- 
tween the two grand elements of the divine goodness. 
If you forget the infinite love of the heavenly Father 
while meditating upon the perfect righteousness of the 
supreme Ruler, you shall find yourselves mastered by a 
tormenting fear and trembling in the presence of God as 
slaves in the presence of a pitiless master. If you forget 
the perfect righteousness of the King of kings, while 
cherishing the truth of the heavenly Father's love and 
gentleness, you shall find yourselves substituting for that 
holy reverence which is the corner stone of personal piety 
a graceless familiarity and wicked presumption. The 
righteousness of God is never absent from the pardoning 
mercy and saving grace His infinite love bestows upon 
the contrite. The infinite love of God is never absent 
from the retributive processes by which His righteous- 
ness punishes the impenitent. Holiness and grace, jus- 
aice and mercy, righteousness and love, blended in per- 
fect harmony, constitute that absolute goodness which is 
God's glory. He who created all things and by whom all 
things consist is the righteous God who, thinking the 
right, responds to the right, throughout every attribute 
of his being, in perfect allegiance; and the righteous God 



THE TRUE GLORY OF GOD. 



17 



is infinitely loving. Love is supreme in His nature. 
Throned in the holy of holies of the heart of the eternal 
and omnipotent King of kings is that perfect love which 
is the central snn and glory of the moral universe around 
which are ranged in the light of which all other perfec- 
tions of Godhead shine with an eifulgence before which all 
the heavenly hosts prostrate! themselves in adoration. 

"The name of the Lord" which was proclaimed to 
Moses and which is one with God's glory is the burden of 
prophecy and of the Christian revelation. To give utter- 
ance to this name, to write 1 it upon the hearts of men, was 
the life work, not only of the prophets and apostles, but 
of the Son of God himself. When His earthly mission 
Was drawing to its close He summed up its results in these 
words, a O righteous Father, the world hath not known 
thee, but I have known thee, and these have known that 
thou hast sent me, and I have declared unto them thy 
name and will declare' it, that the love wherewith thou 
lovest me may be in them, and I in them." All through 
His life on earth he was declaring the name of the right- 
eous Father, making known the real character, the true 
glory, of Godhead. His works of healing, His words of 
truth and grace, His manifestations of compassion for the 
suffering and sinning, His acts' of kindness and example 
of ceaseless charity, added letter to letter of that name; 
and when He bowed His head upon the cross and gave up 
the ghost, dying for the salvation of a lost race, then the 
name of God in full was written upon the central fact of 
this world's history. There it stands to-day in letters of 
redeeming blood, there, in crimson lines, has been visible 
for nineteen centuries; and millions have read it through 



18 



THE TEUE GLOKY OF GOD. 



penitential tears, and in sacred joy have pronounced it, 
holy love. "God is love." Love is His name; love His 
essential nature, His supreme glory. 

So far as mere words could declare the glory of God, 
and so far as Moses was able to receive the knowledge of 
it, it was revealed to him there upon the mount. The ef- 
fect that this revelation had upon him was amazing and 
inexplicable. Bowing his head to the earth before the 
partially manifested glory of the Lord, this man's face, 
the physical fleshly face of him, shone with a supernal 
light, became so divinely luminous, that, when he de- 
scended from the mount, the children of Israel could not 
look upon his face for the glory of his countenance. This 
same irradiation — outshining from the human face of the 
light of the glory of God that fills the soul — if not to the 
same notable degree, has yet been witnessed many times. 
Some of you, doubtless, have seen most unattractive fea- 
tures, illumined, transformed, beautified, beaming with 
unearthly radiance as some saintly man has communed 
with God. But however often seen, this fact remains 
unsolved, is perhaps unsolvable. 

In the case of Moses it was the visible symbol of a 
sublime, invisible fact — a foreshadowing of the greatest, 
most precious reality in Christian experience. St. Paul, 
writing of the glory of God manifested in Christ and of 
its effects upon the spiritual manhood of believers, says, 
"We all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory 
of the Lord, arc changed into the same image from glory 
to glory, even as by the spirit of the Lord." 

Neither the revelation of the glory of God to Moses in 
the mount, nor the manifestation to us of the brightness 



THE TBUE GLORY OF GOD. 



19 



of that glory in the face of Jesus Christ is intended to 
gratify any longing for knowledge, however laudable, but 
for quite other and altogether higher ends. "He who in 
the beginning commanded the light to shine out of dark- 
ness, hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the 
knowledge of His glory," that we, beholding this glory, 
may be changed from glory to glory unto the image of it 
and may reflect its radiance upon the minds and hearts of 
our fellow men. And there is such an unspeakable 
majesty in that righteousness of God and such a matchless 
moral power in that love of God which together constitute 
His glory, that whoever has the vision of them as they 
shine from the face of J esus Christ, cannot but adore and 
trust and feel his wrong tendencies held in by sacred 
restraints and be conscious of a divine, controlling impulse 
towards all that is highest and best in character, — an 
impulse that is nothing else than the power of the mani- 
fested character of God, changing him into the image of 
His Lord, from glory to glory. 

There, in the mount, as Moses bowed before the Lord, 
and the light of the divine glory streamed in upon his 
adoring soul, his spiritual manhood was so permeated and 
filled with that glory that it transfigured his face, shone 
out through all fleshy integuments with such brilliance 
that the children of Israel could not look upon Him for 
the glory of His countenance. 

It is to be noted that long continued communion with 
God in earnest, importunate prayer went before this sub- 
lime experience. JSTot otherwise is such an experience at- 
tainable. The man who does not aspire never ascends 
the mountain heights where the presence of God enfolds 



20 



THE TRUE GLORY OF GOD. 



him, and the glory of God beams upon him and fills his 
enraptured soul with divine light. The supplication, "I 
beseech thee, show me thy glory," going up from the 
heart of a man whose intensest desire it expressed was the 
first, the most indispensible step towards the mount where 
the Lord descended and stood, with him, and proclaimed 
the name of the Lord. 

Alas for the poor, dwarfed, shrivelled souls of men, with 
the breath of spiritual life clean gone out of them, it is 
not the glory of God that they for the most part desire to 
see. Their intensest longing rarely utters itself in the 
words, "We beseech thee, show us thy glory," but oftener 
in the words like these, which are the mumblings of souls 
long since gone insane, "show us how to use our muck- 
rakes so that we may scrape together heaps on heaps of 
worldly riches; show us the path to bowers of pleasure 
where nerves thrilling with delightful sensations shall 
give us what we desire more than all spiritual joys; show 
us the way to win the honors that come from men, and 
which we prize far above any honor that can come from 
God. The whole life of the majority of men is an acted, 
earnest prayer for these pitiful substitutes for the wealth 
and blessedness and glory which are their true portion but 
which, so low have they fallen they have ceased to desire 
at all. | ; 

O beloved, make haste to find your way to the side of 
Moses there where he cried, "I beseech thee show me thy 
glory; kneel with him there; pray with him there; in 
importunity of desire call upon the Lord with him there, 
until you are caught up of the Spirit into some mount of 
vision and your poor soul is ravished by such manifesta- 



THE TRUE GLORY OF GOB. 



tions of the glory of God as were cheaply purchased by a 
thousand years of suffering and the loss of all the pleasures 
and possessions and honors the world has to give. "While 
you cannot by any means always remain upon these lofty 
heights, yet it is given you to bring down from thence a 
clearness of spiritual sight and enlarged conceptions of 
the glory of God that shall abide with you, a daily inspira- 
tion, a source of spiritual strength and purity and noble- 
ness. 

To give to man the knowledge of Himsef , to make a 
full manifestation of the glory of His character to human 
souls, — this is the end of all God's providences, of all the 
divine inspiration with which prophets and apostles have 
been favored of the incarnation, the teachings, the mira- 
cles, the suffering, the death and resurrection of the only 
begotten Son. And to attain that vision of the glory of 
God in the face of Jesus Christ which changes the be- 
holder into the same image, from glory to glory, — this is 
the end of man's existence, the condition of his spiritual 
perfection and blessedness. If once he masters this holy 
art ; and abides in the habit of beholding the glory of God 
in the face of Jesus Christ, purity and peace, holy love and 
all other spiritual excellencies in ever increasing measure 
are thenceforth his assured possession. 

Christ Jesus is "the brightness of the Father's glory, 
the express image of His person." In His spotless purity 
and tender pity for the impure; in His majestic holiness 
and profound compassion for the unholy; in his flawless 
righteousness and infinite love for sinful men, you behold 
the effulgence of the glory of God. Keep the thought of 
Him and the love of Him always in your hearts; draw near 



22 



THE TRUE GLORY OF GOD. 



to Him in faith and worship day bj day, enter into ever 
closer spiritual communion with Him, and so shall you be 
changed more and more into His image until every ele- 
ment of your spiritual manhood shall shine in the simili- 
tude of His glory as shone the face of Moses when he de- 
scended from the mount. 



SERMON II. 



THE OMNISCIENCE OF GOD. 

"O (Lord, thou hast searched me and known me. Thou know- 
est my downsitting and mine uprising; thou understandost my 
thought afar off. Thou compasseth my path and my lying down 
and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word 
in my tongue, but lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether." Psalm 
cxxxix: 1-4. 

As respects our fellow men, we may have secret thoughts 
and secret purposes and a secret life, but as respects Grod, 
we can have no secrets. He holds in the light of His in- 
finite intelligence every part of every man's character and 
conduct. No word spoken, no act done, no thought cher- 
ished, no passion or principle hidden in the heart has 
eluded his notice. Darkness and solitude have failed to 
conceal from Him a single work of a single human being. 
Words upon which the lips have closed, shame or prudence 
forbidding their utterance, have been as audible to Him as 
the loudest thunders. Secrets of plan and purpose that 
red-hot pincers could not have torn from their guilty keep- 
ers, have been as legible to His eye upon the pages of the 
sinner's heart, as if written in letters of flame upon the 
curtains of night. All the public walks and private ways 
of men, all that life which they live before the world and 
all that life which they live in the invisible realms of 
thought and imagination, lie within the compass of G-od's 
knowledge. 

It is not with the omniscience of God, considered merely 
as a doctrine, however, that the psalmist concerns himself. 



THE OMNISCIENCE OF GOD. 



That God's eye is upon him; that God knows him; that 
God is acquainted with all his thoughts and words and 
ways, this is the truth that arrests and holds his attention. 
It is the doctrine of the divine omniscience in its applica- 
tion to himself upon which he concentrates his mind, and 
which he prayerfully ponders. The example he herein 
sets us, we shall do well to follow. 

Every man living holds relations to God which make 
every doctrine of religion his personal comment; and him, 
as a person, God knows; with him, as a person, God deals. 
In a very important sense, the human race is one; but no 
man's individuality is merged and lost in the solidarity of 
the race. God knows men, not simply because He knows 
human nature, but because every man stands before Him 
in his own separate personality, scanned by the all-seeing 
eye, seen and understood in every part of his character and 
history. 

This is the truth that renders the hypocrisy of the 
hypocrite of no avail; that makes certain the drawing aside 
at last of every veil with which he seeks to conceal the 
features of his soul ; that shows all his painstaking care to 
hide his principles and designs to be the profitless labor of 
a fool. This is the truth that assures the good man, whose 
reputation has been blackened by the breath of slander 
that the hour shall come when his righteousness shall shine 
forth as the light, and his judgment as the noonday. 

The subject covered by the text deserves to be consid- 
ered in such a profoundly religious way, and with such 
close personal applications as shall bring conscience under 
its quickening influence, and the whole life under its con- 
trol. It is thus that the psalmist considers it. "Thou 



THE OMNISCIENCE OF GOD. 



25 



knowest my downsitting." When I take needed rest from 
daily toil, thou seest me. When I waste the time that 
ought to be devoted to labor in the sleep of the sluggard, 
then thou dost mark me. "Thou knowest mine uprising." 
W T hen I go forth to engage in the activities of life, whether 
in frivolous pleasures, I dissipate serious thought, or ear- 
nestly and diligently try to accomplish the work thou hast 
given me to do, whatever the way in which I go, whatever 
the employment in which I invest my energies, "thou com- 
passest my parts, and art acquainted with all my ways." 
"There is not a word in my tongue, but lo, O Lord, 
thou knowest it 'altogether." When I speak, thou hearest, 
and what I say is recorded; and though my words be only 
in my tongue, and pass not my lips, yet the unspoken word 
is heard of thee and thou knowest what I mean. "Thou 
understandest my thought afar off." When thought is 
only in the process of formation, having, as yet, assumed 
no distinctiveness in my own conceptions, then thou under- 
standest it; and when it has come to maturity and served 
its end and has wholly passed from my memory, it is still 
with thee. Into all the secret places of my soul, into all 
the hidden fountains of feeling and all the concealed 
sources of action, thou lookest. By day and by night, 
whether I am in society, or in solitude, the thoughts of 
my mind, the affections of my heart, the purposes of my 
soul, all lie open to thine eye. "Thou hast searched out 
and known me." 

This persistent baring of his conscience to the truth of 
God's perfect knowledge of him must have constrained 
the psalmist to put a bridle upon his tongue, a constant 
guard upon his conduct, a perpetual restrain upon his pas- 
(2) 



20 



THE OMNISCIENCE OF GOD. 



sions. It must have caused him to be very vigilant in 
keeping unholy motives from getting control of his inner 
life. While penetrated and possessed by the truth of 
God's perfect acquaintance with his ways, it was not pos- 
sible for him to heedlessly plunge into evil courses; and 
this truth was brought home to his heart and indelibly 
stamped upon his mind in connection with the only 
shameful chapter in his history. "When he thought that 
the infamous record was closed up and sealed forever by 
the death of the man he had so foully wronged, the hand 
of God broke the seal and laid bare the horrible deed by 
v'hich he had dishonored his mandhood and disgraced his 
throne; and so the truth, "Thou God seest me" was 
burned into his soul. He never forgot it afterwards or 
passed from under its influence. Remembering that 
every act of his life, whether public or private, was per- 
formed in the immediate presence of God, he was im- 
pelled to be constantly on his guard, lest he fall into 
condemnation. And, brethren, you will find it profitable 
to follow his example herein, — profitable in every way. 

1. The consideration of God's omniscience will be of 
great practical use to you in revealing the moral quality 
of many things with reference to which you stand in 
doubt; and putting your conscience on notice as to the 
presence of sin, when and where you might not otherwise 
suspect it. 

You sometimes indulge passions and enter upon lines of 
conversation and conduct that you cannot confidently clas- 
sify as good, and which you hesitate to pronounce sinful. 
There are social customs, and popular amusements, and 
business methods, about the moral nature of which the 



THE OMNISCIENCE OF GOD. 



27 



the world lias always differed. The church condemns 
and forbids them, the world approves and encourages them. 
The Word of God does not contain any explicit divine deliv- 
erance concerning them. There are those among you who 
are not prepared to take any decided stand either for or 
against them. At the same time you cannot but know 
that your eternal destiny may be involved in your personal 
relation to those very things about the moral quality of 
which you have no decided convictions. 

I am quite confident that nothing will more certainly 
inure clearness of spiritual vision and make your conscience 
tender and true in regard to all these things than the habit 
of considering them in the light of God's perfect knowl- 
edge of you. You know from experience what is meant 
by the vicarious property of love. Love enters you in 
feeling into the joys and sorrows of those whom you love, 
so that you rejoice in their joy and sorrow in their sor- 
row. This vicarious property belongs to conscience also. 
The conscience that is uninstructed, and, therefore, not 
reliable in its judgments, enters itself into the light and" 
seats itself upon the throne of the higher conscience with 
which it comes in contact; and, in that light sees what 
before was invisible to it, and from that throne pro- 
nounces true judgment upon that of the real nature of 
which it was previously ignorant. Certain words and 
acts may seem to a boy altogether harmless, and his con- 
science may not condemn him on account of them while 
he is among playfellows whose standard of right is no 
higher than his own ; but if they are really sinful, this fact 
Incomes instantly evident to him when he knows that his 
mother hears these words and that her pure eye is looking 



28 



THE OMNISCIENCE OF GOD. 



upon these acts. The moment she appears upon the 
scene, his conscience takes upon it the tenderness and 
fidelity of hers; sees with the clearness of vision that 
characterizes hers, and pronounces the same judgment. 

If you habitually consider those things that are of 
doubtful quality in the light of the truth that God is 
looking into your heart and observing your ways, you 
hereby bring your life into contact with the perfect 
standard of righteousness that is in the divine mind, and 
your conscience will more and more speak with the voice 
and utter the judgment of God. Accustom yourselves, 
when speaking or acting or thinking along lines as to the 
righteousness of which you are in doubt to say within 
yourself. God hears every word I am speaking, sees all 
that I am doing, knows what motives govern me and is 
acquainted with every feeling and passion of my heart. 
If you do this, honestly intent upon knowing and con- 
forming to His standard of righteousness, every element 
of uncharitableness and insincerity in your words shall 
be exposed, every taint of sinfulness in your acts and im- 
purity in your thoughts and viciousness in your princi- 
ples shall be detected; all the sophistries of selfishness 
shall be exploded and every derformity in your character 
and evil in your conduct shall be unmasked. If you 
sincerely desire to know what is wrong that you may 
avoid it, and what is right that you may do it, and so to 
bring your whole life into conformity to the law of the 
Lord, there is no method by which you can more certainly 
secure these ends than by living under the influence of 
the truth that God sees you always and knows you alto- 
gether. 



THE OMNISCIENCE OF GOD. 



29 



2. The consideration of God's omniscience will 
stimulate desire and hope and effort in the direction of 
holiness. While warring against evil, and following 
after righteousness, the psalmist found in the fact that 
God knew every secret of his heart a source of great 
encouragement and strength. H© did not imagine that 
because he was the servant of the Lord, therefore, impur- 
ity in his heart or unholiness in his life would be any the 
less abhorred and condemned by the divine Spirit; but, 
in the fact that God knew and hated every evil that 
lurked in his nature he saw the possibility and prospect 
of deliverance. He would not have concealed from the 
Lord one fault or folly or sin if he could have done bo. 
On the contrary, he cried, "Search me, O God, and know 
my heart; try me and know my thoughts; and see if 
there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way 
everlasting.'' 

The. fact that your iniquities are set before God, and 
your secret sins in the light of His countenance is enough 
to cover you with shame and confusion; but if this were 
not so your case would be hopelesp. If wickedness were 
hi you and God did not know it; if he were ignorant of 
any foulness or fault in your character your spiritual ruin 
would be certain and remediless. God is the only physi- 
cian of souls, and in His perfect knowledge of your dis- 
ease is your only hope of a perfect cure. He does know 
you thoroughly. He sees clearly every evil habit of 
temper and passion and motive that defiles your hearts. 
He sees the evil and abhors it. It mars the beauty and 
dimms the glory of that image of Himself upon your 
spiritual manhood which He wills shall be perfect: and 



30 



THE OMNISCIENCE OF GOD. 



knowing all your weaknesses and defects, your follies and 
sins, He knows just where to apply the keen edge of His 
pruning knife; just where the cleansing and sanctifying 
offices of His Spirit are needed; just what influences of 
grace are required to invigorate your holy principles and 
quicken your holy affections. He is looking upon all 
your evils, but, blessed be His name, not as an unfriendly 
or a disinterested critic, but as a clear-sighted sympathiz- 
ing and helping friend. His love for you and His hatred 
of sin put all the energy of His Spirit and all the power 
of His grace under bonds to cleanse you from unright- 
eousness and perfect you in Christlikeness of character. 
In view of these truths every one of you ought to pray 
earnestly and in faith, " Search me, O God, and know my 
heart; try me and know my thoughts and see if there be 
any wicked way in me and lead me in the way ever- 
lasting." 

3. The consideration of God's omniscience will be of 
great practical use to you, if while trying to live out blame- 
less and holy and useful lives, all your efforts end in appa- 
rent failure. 

He sees the desire and purpose of your hearts. He 
know r s, notwithstanding any appearances to the contrary, 
that it is the fixed intention of your soul to be good and 
to glorify His name. He knows every difficulty, every 
temptation, every infirmity of nature that hinders the 
accomplishment of your purpose; and He judges, not 
according to appearances but righteous judgment. "If 
any man love God, the same is known of God. "The 
eye of the Lord is upon them that fear Him, upon thorn 
that hope in His mercy." "The Lord knoweth them 



THE OMNISCIENCE OE GOB. 



31 



that trust in Him." If those who profess to be our 
friends seemed as indifferent to our sorrows as the disci- 
ples of our Lord did to his agony in Gethsemane, we 
would scorn their friendship and despise their persons. 
But the eye of the Lord saw through all deceptive appear- 
ances and recognized the sincerity of the love for Him 
that was in the hearts of His sleeping disciples, and He 
said, O so graciously, "The spirit indeed is willing, but 
the flesh is weak." 

O Christian brethren sincere and earnest in your pur- 
pose to glorify Christ and do good to the souls for which 
He died, through all the imperfect exhibitions of this 
purpose, God sees, sees right down into your hearts and 
knows what spirit your are of. Is fear of Him there? 
He beholds it. Is hope in Him there? He sees it. Is 
love for Him there? He knows it. You may not be 
able to give utterance in fitting words to the spirit of 
piety that you cherish; and you may lack opportunities 
for its full expression in deeds; and your fellow disciples, 
not recognizing its presence, may doubt or deny that it 
exists at all; but God knows how it struggles to find 
manifestation, and struggles in vain. 

Is there in your heart a fervent charity, prompting 
you to do good, to alleviate the sufferings and comfort 
the sorrows of your fellow men, to instruct the ignorant 
and lead sinners to Christ? And while longing to be 
largely useful, standing ready, eager to make any sacri- 
fice to accomplish this end, do circumstances shut you up 
to an appearance of selfishness and meanness? Con- 
sciously generous and self-sacrificing do false appearances 
fasten upon you a reputation for eovetousness and self- 



32 



THE OMNISCIENCE OF GOD. 



seeking? If so, herein is the heavy cross you are called 
to bear, perhaps the very heaviest that is ever laid upon 
a truly Christian soul; but, if, under this burden of un- 
just suspicion and reproach you still cherish the loving, 
self-sacrificing spirit of Christ, this heavy cross shall 
change at last into "a far more exceeding and eternal 
weight of glory." God knows. Bind this truth upon 
your heart. 

4. The consideration of G-od's omniscience will be of 
great practical benefit to you if it ever comes to pass that 
your good name is tarnis'hed by the breath of slander. 
Every one of you is liable to be misunderstood, misrepre- 
sented, falsely accused, defamed. Those whom you now 
esteem your truest friends may one day be turned 
against you by the lying tongue of the traducer, and 
shun your presence as if you were a leper. Without the 
sheltering love the confidence or sympathy of a single 
human being, you may be doomed to hear the pitiless 
beating of storms, of reproach and scorn. The voice of 
your justification may be drowned by the voices of them 
who hate you; and, while consciously innocent, you may 
sometime feel the red-hot brand of society's curse burn- 
ing into your foreheads; or you may know that the air 
about you is vibrant with slanderous whisperings the 
meaning of which no one explains, you may be forsaken 
of all your friends, and left in ignorance of what vice or 
crime is laid to your charge. Such things have been, 
and shall be again. It is possible that some of you may 
yet know the bitter experience of those who, without a 
hearing, are doomed to hear the condemnation and con- 
tempt of their fellow men; may yet suffer the remediless 



THE OMNISCIENCE OF GOD. 



33 



wrong that is inflicted by the assassins of reputation. If 
so, your only hope is in God. He whose good name has 
been polluted by the filthy slime of the slanderer's 
tongue, need never look for justice at the hands of men. 
So far as this life is concerned, the wrong done by the 
lying lips of malignity can never be repaired. The false 
charge may be refuted in the most thorough and public 
way, but long after the specific charge and the fact of its 
refutation have passed from the memory of men, the im- 
pression made by the slander will linger in their minds. 
If there should ever oome to you such an experience as I 
have described, stay your hearts on the truth that G od 
knows. He whose favor is better than life, and whose 
children you are, can never be deceived by lies, nor in- 
fluenced in the slightest degree by the slanders of those 
who hate you; and He will see to it that your vindication 
shall be complete and final. Appeal your case to the bar 
of the Searcher of hearts, and take refuge from the slan- 
ders of men in the omniscience of God. 

Finally, God knows all the anxieties that harrass, all 
the disappointments that embitter, all the troubles and 
sorrows that weigh down your spirit. There are many of 
your most painful experiences of which your lips never 
speak. There are griefs that are too sacred to be commit- 
ted to the keeping of any earthly friend. You can neither 
ask nor accept human sympathy under the very circum- 
stances that make sympathy most necessary to you. Its 
own bitterness which the heart alone knoweth, must be 
borne alone, so far as any help from our fellow creatures 
is concerned. But God knows, and He is not an indiffer- 
ent spectator of your sorrows. The cold, infinite, impas- 



34 



THE OMNISCIENCE OE GOB. 



ible intellect that philosophy and much of the theology 
of this and other days calls by the name of God, is not 
the God of the Bible. He whom we worship is the 
infinite Heart of the Universe, tenderly compassionate 
and loving; and not merely as the omniscient God 
does He know your bereavements and griefs, but as 
your Father and friend. To Him, therefore, you can 
bring all your secret trials and troubles and disap- 
pointments, assured of a sympathy that shall soothe and 
console. Before Him you can uncover all the hidden 
wounds of your hearts, assured that His hand will apply 
the balm that heals every wound it touches. O the sym- 
pathy of the all-knowing and infinitely loving God; what 
a fountain of consolation there is in that. "As one whom 
his mother comf orteth" ; so shall you be comforted, in 
God's knowledge of you, and His love for you, and His 
sympathy with you. 

Beloved, cherish always the remembrance of the fact 
that God knows you altogether. Carry this remem- 
brance with you into all the relations and experiences of 
life; its holy restraints will arrest every wrong tendency 
of your nature. Its sacred inspiration will encourage 
and strengthen you to follow after righteousness. Its 
blessed influence will console you in all your sorrows, 
and invigorate every holy purpose and principle in your 
hearts. 



SEKMON III. 



THE OMNIPRESENCE OF GOD. 

" Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee 
from thy presence? 

"\Itf I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed 
in hell, behold, thou art there. 

"If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the utter- 
most parts of the sea: 

"iJEiven there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall 
hold me." Psalm cxxxix: 7-10. 

That God is at all times in all parts of the universe, 
though unquestionably a true doctrine, is one that is 
wholly incomprehensible by us. It is evident that omni- 
presence is a necessary attribute of Him by whom all 
things consist; but how He can be in His whole and un- 
divided personality at every point in illimitable space we 
do not and cannot understand. Our minds are so consti- 
tuted that we cannot think of a being as present in two 
worlds at the same instant of time without thinking of 
that being as extended — drawn out — through all the 
space intervening. But extension is a quality of matter, 
and cannot be affirmed of God who is a spirit. Moreover, 
a being present everywhere by virtue of the property of 
extension would be nowhere present in the sense in 
which the Scriptures teach that God is present every- 
where; for there would be only a part of such being at 
any given place, whereas the doctrine of the Bible is that 
God in the entirety of His being is in all places, — the 
whole Godhead here, in this house of worship, in heaven 
and everywhere. 



36 



THE OMNIPKESENCE OF GOD. 



The manner of the divine omnipresence is inexplicable, 
and every attempt to compass this subject by human 
thought has only served to emphasize the truth that man 
cannot find out God to perfection. There is, indeed, 
whatever the subject of investigation, a boundary beyond 
which human intelligence cannot pass. A limit to 
thought has been fixed in the constitution of the human 
mind. This limit is reached, in whatever direction 
thought may travel, whenever we come to the question 
of mode. The little word "how" marks a point beyond 
which our knowledge cannot go. We know that the food 
we eat, in the process of digestion is converted into 
chyme and then into chyle and then into blood, and that 
the blood supplies the place of the waste tissue in bone 
and muscle and nerve; but how? A child can answer this 
question as wisely as a philosopher. We may as well 
confess with one of the first thinkers of the age that 
"there is in the manner of everything an incomprehensi- 
bility about which no controversy ought to be concerned." 

Even if we could thoroughly understand the mode of 
God's omnipresence it is probable that nothing of prac- 
tical value would be added to our present knowledge upon 
the subject. The one thing in this connection of real 
consequence to us is the fact that God is everywhere, and 
this fact he has plainly and repeatedly proclaimed in His 
Word. 

"Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not 
see him? saith the Lord. Do I not till heaven and earth?" 
It is true of every man on earth, true of every angel in 
heaven, true of every creature in all worlds, true of each 
a1 every moment of time that in God he lives " lives and 



THE OMNIPRESENCE OF GOD. 



37 



moves and has his being." The Lord God of Hosts is He that 
toucheth the mountains and they melt." "It is He that 
buildeth his stories in heaven and hath founded His troop 
upon the earth." "He hath commanded the morning," 
since the morning first was. He "taketh hold upon the 
ends of the earth and in His hand it is turned as clay to 
the seal." He hath entered into the openings of the 
sea." "The gates of death" are open to Him, and "the 
doors of the shadow of death" exclude Him not. He 
walketh there as in His palaces. "Where the light is, 
there is His habitation, and He maketh darkness His 
pavilion round about Him." On the earth "He divideth 
a water course for the overflowing waters," and in the 
heavens, He "maketh a way for the lightning of thun- 
der." He "causeth it to rain on the earth where no man 
is, and on the wilderness wherein there is no man." "He 
openeth His hand and satisfieth the wants of every living 
thing." The mighty forces of nature, in all parts of the 
world, are so evidently guided by an infinite intelligence 
that in every movement, they proclaim the presence of 
Grod everywhere 1 . 

But the earth cannot contain Him. While He dwells 
in the midst of its central fires, and is in every place upon 
its surface, He is also present in the highest heavens. 
While "he feedeth the young raven when they cry," and 
directs the sparrow in his seemingly aimless flight, at the 
same time He moves His hand among the stars, "bindeth 
the sweet influence of the Pleiades, looseth the bands of 
Orion; bringeth forth Mazaroth in his season, and guid- 
eth Arcturus with his suns." "By Him were all things 
created, in heaven and in earth, visible and invisible, and 



38 THE OMIs'IPEESENCE OF GOD. 

by Him do all things consist." Nature, which with her 
ten thousand voices proclaims, ever and everywhere, 
"the hand that made me is divine," with equal distinct- 
ness proclaims, the hand that made me upholds and 
guides me still. 

But it is not the omnipresence of God considered as a 
doctrine that arrests the psalmist's thought. He dwells 
upon it as a fact; seeks to root this fact in his convictions 
and to bring his whole life under the influence of it. 
"Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? or whither shall I 
flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven," 
thy praises, sung by angelic choirs, thy glory, reflected 
from the faces of the cherubim and seraphim, proclaim 
thee present there. "If I make my bed in hell," the visi- 
tation of exact justice upon wicked king and wicked sub- 
ject alike, proclaim thee present there. "If I take the 
wing of the morning, and fly to the uttermost parts of the 
sea," or continuing my flight until, passing beyond the 
orbits of revolving worlds, I enter that realm of outer 
darkness never visited by the sunbeams, "even there shall 
thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me." 
God, "I cannot go from thy Spirit, I cannot flee from thy 
presence;" wherever I am, by day, by night, in the midst 
of a multitude or alone, at home or abroad, thou art with 
me. "Thou compassest my paths and my lying down and 
art acquainted with all my ways." 

O brethren, if we were always thus penetrated and pos- 
sessed by the truth of God's presence; if in every place 
and at all times, we did but realize the fact of God's per- 
sonal presence, we should "stand in awe and sin not," all 
evil, I think would be shamed out of us and all good 
would be nurtured in us. 



THE OMNIPRESENCE OE GOD. 39 

It is certain if the Most High were always visible to 
human eyes; if in the ineffable glory of His Godhead, He 
were constantly seen of men, that no man would ever 
dare to sin, or fear or fail to do right. The rending of 
the veil that hangs between our spirits and His awful 
presence and the constant sight of His glory, however, 
would be destructive of our moral freedom. It would 
not merely exert upon us a moral influence inclining and 
helping us to obey divine law, but would bring us under 
the control of a moral force, which, necessitating obedi- 
ence would rob it of all moral character. Probation 
under these circumstances would be impossible; and 
therefore the open vision of God is reserved until proba- 
tion is passed and our destiny is fixed. What we need 
for the development of a holy character is not any forcing 
processes that compel obedience to divine law, but moral 
influences, which, leaving us free to chose between right 
and wrong, shall yet dispose and aid us to choose and to 
do the right. Among such influences the constant re- 
membrance of God's presence holds a most important 
place. Jeremy Taylor was correct when he wrote, "The 
consideration of the truth of God's presence is of a very 
universal use in the whole course of the life of a Chris- 
tian. Besides impiety he must have put on impudence, 
who will send a little boy away that he may not be seen 
to sin and yet will do it though the great God is there," 
and cannot be sent away. 

It is because the doctrine of the text is susceptible of 
practical uses; because is may be made a source of tender- 
ness of conscience and strength of religious principles and 
consolation in sorrow that I now press it upon your atten- 
tion. 



40 



THE OMNIPRESENCE OF GOD. 



1. The consideration of God's presence with you will 
be of great practical use in time of temptation. 

The presence of a fellow creature whom we esteem 
holier than ourselves, whose displeasures we deprecate 
and whose approval we desire, fosters all that is good in 
us and effectually helps us to suppress wrong passions and 
refrain from improper words and deeds. There is no 
earthly influence that puts such a restrain upon every evil 
tendency of our nature as daily companionship with a 
holy man. But, if we have any spirit of piety at all, we 
fear the shadow of God's frown more than the execra- 
tions of all mankind, and desire the light of His smile 
more than the applause of all His saints; and if, when 
tempted to sin, we call to mind the fact, God. is here, He 
hates sin, His wrath against it burns to the deepest hell 
and. bums inextinguishably, this remembrance of His 
presence cannot but arm us against the assault of temp- 
tion, and give us strength to overcome. 

It is when separated from those whose character is a 
rebuke to iniquity, or when in the midst of a multitude 
who, doing evil together, keep each other in countenance, 
or when in solitude with no human eye upon us that we 
find it most difficult to resist the seductions of sin. We 
greatly need then to remember, though away from home 
and. unknown, or though the many with whom we go in 
paths of transgression will justify us in justifying them- 
selves, or though where no eye of man can see us, that 
God is there with us in the strange city, there with us in 
the midst of the multitude, there with us in our place of 
secret retirement, that He will mark against us whatever 
6in we commit and call us to answer for it at His judg- 



f HE OMNIPRESENCE OF GOl>. 



41 



ment seat. This remembrance cannot bnt weaken the 
force of temptation; hush the clamors of passion and give 
us time to arm our souls in the panoply of righteousness 
and stand upon the defensive. 

The remembrance of God's presence will help us to 
resist temptation, not only by quickening our reverence 
for His holiness and our fear of His wrath, but by the 
inspiring assurance that, God being present infinite re- 
sources of wisdom and power are at hand to aid us. God 
is the friend and helper of the tried and tempted soul. 
The faintest cry for protection that ever goes up to 
heaven from a human spirit beleagured by the powers of 
darkness enters the ears of the Lord God of Sabaoth and 
rallies omnipotence to his defense. We know how God 
hates sin; how He gave his only begotten Son to suffer 
and die that we migh be saved from sin, and how it is 
always His will that we conquer in every conflict with 
the forces of evil; and therefore the mere calling to mind 
of His presence when assaulted by the devil, the world and 
the flesh, makes us' strong for the battle. 

We are sorely tempted, our goodness is melting away 
like a morning cloud, our strength is proving itself weak- 
ness, weary of the long conflict against evil, disheartened 
by the continued fierceness of warfare, we are almost 
ready to despair and to yield ourselves up to the powers 
of darkness to be led captive by them at their will, but 
we remember God is here upon this field of battle, — the 
Father of our spirits, the almighty friend of our souls is 
here, and along with this remembrance comes the assur- 
ance that unlimited divine resources are at hand for our 
aid, and, under the wing of this assurance, our scattered 
(3) 



42 THE OMNIPRESENCE OE GOD. 

t 

moral forces have time to rally, and our souls inspired 
with holy courage are gloriously triumphant where they 
were upon the point of ignominious and ruinous defeat. 
It is a blessed fact, brethren, one in which we can glory 
and rejoice, that there is no place in all the universe 
where the numerous, wily and powerful enemies of our 
souls can ever find us alone, unguarded by a wisdom and 
power infinitely superior to theirs. 

2. The consideration of God's presence will be of 
great practical use in strengthening us for the discharge 
of duty. 

A child, commanded by his father to do any given work 
will do that work more cheerfully, and will do it better 
in his father's presence than in his absence. And this 
does not necessarily imply anything of the nature of eye- 
service either. The child may be in the best sense of the 
word, an obedient child, and he may obey his father as 
conscientiously when his father does not see him as when 
his eye is upon him. But as those of you who have not 
forgotten the experiences of childhood know, there is 
something in the very presence of an affectionate father, 
an inspiration in his approval of the child's effort to please 
him, that wonderfully helps the child to do his work and 
to do it well. And so you "sons and daughters of the 
Lord Almighty," may fully recognize the obligation that 
is upon you to obey Him in all things, and you may con- 
scientiously obey him even when the thought of His 
presence is not in your mind; but, if you can have all 
the time, not only a strong sense of moral obligation, but 
the remembrance of the fact that the heavenly Father 
who has given you your life work to do is present with 



THE OMNIPRESENCE OF GOD. 



43 



you, that he is looking upon you in loving kindness and 
is pleased with all your efforts to please Him, you shall 
find yourselves running in gladness along the path of 
obedience over which you so often wearily drag your 
tired feet. With nothing to sustain and inspire you but 
a sense of duty, oftener than otherwise duty is an ex- 
hausting task: but even when the burdens laid upon you 
in the Lord's vineyard seem altogether without recom- 
pense, the thought of the presence of your gracious, lov- 
ing, heavenly Father cannot but inspire your heart, 
invigorate all your holy principles and srengthen your 
whole spiritual manhood. 

As you go forth into the field of labor appointed you 
here below carry with you the remembrance of the fact 
that your God and Saviour is there with you, that He 
knows all the weariness and pain you suffer and is deeply 
interested in the success of your labors. He stands a 
sympathizing witness of all your efforts to do good; is at 
hand to strenghten you with might according to His 
riches in glory; and always, while you faithfully try to 
do the work he has given you to do, His benediction is 
resting upon you. 

3. The consideration of Grod's pleasure with you will 
be of great practical use in time of affliction. 

"Man is born unto trouble." Suffering and sorrow are 
the heritage of all our race, and nothing so increases the 
heaviness of the burden of trouble; nothing infuses such 
bitterness into the cup of sorrow as the knowledge of the 
fact that we stand all alone in the night, with the pitiless 
storm beating upon us and that no one cares whether we 
suffer more or less. He who has had this sense of lone- 



44 



THE OMNIPEESEXCE OF GOD. 



liness added to the burden of grief, who with the crash- 
ing weight of a great sorrow upon his heart, has had to 
bear also the oppression of utter soul solitude, knows 
what it is to stand upon the verge of despair. But what- 
ever our trouble, one half of its weight is lifted from the 
heart by the knowledge of the fact that there is one true 
friend who loves us and enters in by sympathy into the 
full measure of our grief. He who made you and me 
never intended that we should enjoy or suffer alone; and 
whoever, in the pride of a perverted nature attempts ei- 
ther, finds in the one case that his happiness is wasted 
and, in the other, that his suffering is intensified. In 
joy we are doubly blessed in the fact that others share it 
with us; and I know not how we could bear life's stormy 
doom, — how we could live through the bitter disappoint- 
ments and heartbreaking experiences that are our portion 
on earth but for the sympathy of those who love us. 

But divine sympathy is immeasurably more helpful to 
the man of affliction than that of his dearest earthly 
friends. The only balm that can heal a wounded heart, 
the only real consolation in sorrow, is found in the love 
and compassion of our heavenly Father. And he has 
assured us of His unchanging love for us, and His tender 
sympathy with us in all our distress. There are some 
wonderful passages in Holy Scripture embodying this 
blessed assurance. It is written in one place, "even as a 
father pitieth his children so the Lord pitieth them that 
fear Him. ,, If you who are fathers have ever seen one 
of your children writhing in physical pain, or crushed by 
an overwhelming grief, you know what the yearning, 
inexpressible pity of a father's heart is, — and "even as a 



THE OMNIPRESENCE OF GOD. 



45 



father pitieth His children so the Lord pitieth them that 
fear Him." There is another passage on this line, the 
depths of the meaning of which you who are mothers can 
more nearly fathom than we who are fathers. Speaking 
of His people, the Lord says in one place, "In all their 
afflictions, I am afflicted." Every mother among you 
knows how the love of a mother's heart enters her in feel- 
ing into the experience of her suffering child, — so that 
she is sick in his sickness, suffers in his suffering, sorrows 
in his sorrow; and the Lord tells us that He is afflicted 
in all our afflictions. You have read these wonderful 
assurances of divine sympathy many times, doubtless, 
and they have given you much consolation, but perhaps not 
one of you has gotten out of them all the comfort that 
you might for the reason that you have thought of God 
as far away, beyond the stars, throned in inaccessi- 
ble glory. We all know that the sympathy of a friend, 
who is a long way off, across the sea, does not touch 
and console one in sorrow, as does the sympathy of a 
friend whose arm is about his neck, whose tears mingle 
with his as they fall and whose words of love are breathed 
into his ear. Beloved, God is not far from you when dis- 
appointments embitter your experience and sorrow breaks 
your heart. "He is a very present help in trouble." 
The ever blessed God, your Saviour, claims a peculiarly 
close fellowship with you in your griefs. He became the 
man of sorrows that He might be such an High-priest as 
can be touched with the feeling of your saddest experi- 
ences; and, if His words, "Lo I am with you alway to the 
end of the world," have any stronger application to any 
special occasions in the heart-history of His people than 



46 



THE OMNIPRESENCE OF GOD. 



to others, it is to those occasions where all the waves and 
billows of grief go over their heads. Then He is with 
them. 

O child of God who art at the same time the child of 
many and great sorrows, cheer your soul, saying, Fear 
not, O my soul; God is with thee in this night of grief; 
He loves thee; His compassion is deeper than thy sorrow; 
His hand is holding thee; He hath said, "I will never 
leave thee nor forsake thee." The fires of affliction shall 
not consume, nor the waves of woe overwhelm thee, 
Fear not, neither be dismayed, for thy God is with thee. 

This blessed truth of the divine presence which is so 
clearly revealed in Holy Scripture, it is both your duty 
and privilege to make of practical use in your daily exper- 
ience. Frequent repetition of the act of remembering 
His presence, will issue in making the remembrance of that 
presence so habitual, so constant, that your whole life 
shall be brought under its refining and ennobling influ- 
ence, — an influence that shall fortify you against every 
assault of temptation; that shall strengthen you for the 
discharge of every duty, and afford you abounding con- 
solation in every sorrow. 

My father's library was very rich in Methodist biog- 
raphy and auto-biography; and, in my boyhood, these 
books were of entrancing interest to me. Many of the 
saints in the early days of Methodism kept diaries in 
which they recorded the religious experiences of each 
day. There was a sentence, frequently recurring in these 
diaries, the meaning of which I did not then know, but 
which I have learned since. It was this, — "I have been 
in a state of recollection all the day." By this form of 



THE OMNIPEESENCE OF GOD. ' 47 

words these godly men intended to say that when they 
waked in the morning the thought of God's presence was 
in their hearts; that when they went forth to their daily 
labor this thought was still with them; that all through 
the afternoon and evening, whether they worked or rested, 
they never for one moment passed from under the influ- 
ence of the truth of the divine presence; and that now in 
reviewing the experiences of the day they could recall no 
smallest, interval of time in which they had forgotten 
God. i i 

It is your privilege, brethren, thus to live all the while, 
to endure the trials of life, to bear its burdens, to dis- 
charge its duties, to submit to its chastenings, as seeing 
Him who is invisible; to walk with Him in a closeness 
of fellowship and constancy of communion that shall fit 
you for the open vision of His face in the home of the 
saints. 



SEKMON IV. 

THE OPENING OF HEAVEN. 

"And tie saitli unto him, verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereaf- 
ter ye shall see heaven open and the angels of God ascending 
and descending upon the Son of Man." St. John i : 51. 

There was in the Lord Jesus a blending of spotless per- 
sonal purity and tenderest compassion for sinners, of 
transcendent holiness and loving sympathy for guilty 
men, of majesty and meekness, a more than kingly 
authority and gentleness, never seen before, that some- 
how constrained all who came in contact with him to 
exhibit the distinctive traits of their own character, 
whether good or bad. The presence of Jesus carried 
with it a veritable day of judgment into every company 
that He entered. Humble men, sincere and devout, saw 
in this man of Galilee that which inspired them at sight 
with a faith and devotion that thenceforth completely 
possessed them. Proud and selfish men, the carnal and 
worldy minded, saw in Him that which so clearly revealed 
the despicable baseness of their own character and con- 
duct that, like Zaccheus, they were prostrated in penitence 
at His feet, or, like the scribes and Pharisees, were filled 
with bitterest hatred towards Him. 

Nathaniel, an Israelite, a guileless soul, sensitive to all 
heavenly influences, responsive to every phase of the di- 
vinely true and beautiful and good, looked but once into 
the face of Jesus, heard but once the sound of His voice, 
when he was thrilled by the manifest fact that the ideal 



THE OPENING OF HEAVEN. 



49 



Messiah of the prophecies was actually before him, real- 
ized in the person of Jesus, and he cried, "Thou art the 
Son of God; thou art the king of Israel." It was this' 
confession of His Messiahship that called forth from 
Jesus the wonderful words of the text, "Verily, I say 
unto you, hereafter, ye shall see heaven open, and the 
angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son 
Man." 

It is evident at first glance that these words of our Lord 
are not to be understood in their literal sense. No literal 
opening of what is here called heaven can there possibly 
be; no literal seeing of heavenly things is here spoken of; 
no personal angels, making the person of the Son of man 
a means of ascent into heaven and descent from thence to 
the earth, are to be thought of in the study of the text. 
Nothing that even approaches a fulfillment of its declara- 
tions, literally construed, has ever occurred or is conceiv- 
able. All ideas of space and localities in space, of natural 
vision and personal angels are to be wholly put out of 
mind if we would comprehend its teachings. 

Unquestionably, our Lord is here publishing facts that 
belong exclusively to the spiritual sphere, the unveiling to 
the souls of believers of the sublime realities of the spir- 
itual world and the establishment through his mediation of 
free, continuous intercourse between earth and that spir- 
itual world, between God and man. 

1. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, hereafter ye shall 
see heaven open." This word "heaven" cannot here 
mean the starry heaven, — the visible firmament. This 
has always been open to those who had eyes to see; and 
its depths have been opening to human gaze more and 



THE OPENING OF HEAVEN. 



more as telescopes of increased power nave been con- 
structed. Nor does the word signify the place which 
Jesus has gone to prepare for them that love Him. That 
place has been partly opened to our vision, it is true; and 
glimpses of its beauty and blessedness have been given us; 
and our thoughts and hope do ascend to its holy courts 
through faith in Christ; and inspiration and strength do 
descend into our hearts from thence through what Jesus 
has taught us concerning its associations and joys. But it 
was not of that city of our God, which we call heaven, 
that our Lord was speaking to Nathaniel. 

By the word "heaven" he means the spiritual, eternal 
verities of the unseen world, — verities that answer to the 
needs, the susceptibilities, the aspirations of our spiritual 
nature, — the divine truths and facts, the knowledge of 
which is essential to the life of our souls, — the personality 
and fatherhood of God, — an infinite divine love that em- 
braces us, a divine wisdom that guides us, a divine power 
that protects us, a divine mercy that pardons us, a divine 
grace that saves us, — the true, the real heaven of God's 
personal excellencies, the glorious perfections of the 
personal character of our Father in heaven. Whatever 
else heaven may be it is certain that its center, its sub- 
stance, its' light, its glory, its all and in all, is God. The 
holy, loving heart of the eternal Father, in that is all that 
constitutes heaven. 

When, therefore, Jesus said, "Hereafter ye shall 6ee 
heaven open," He meant that this, the true heaven, the 
character of God, the glory of the Most High, about which 
men had speculated much, which philosophers and relig- 
ious teachers had labored to unveil, for the vision of which 



THE OPENING OF HEAVEN. 



51 



the wisest and best of earth in all ages had longed should 
be opened to men by his mediation. What the opening 
of this heaven really means, how unspeakably important 
the knowledge of the divine verities that the opening of 
it reveals to us and how precious the benefits hereby accru- 
ing to us, will be more fully understood and appreciated, 
if we consider heaven closed to men, fast-shut against 
them by their criminal ignorance. 

At the time Jesus came, in so far as any true conception 
of the nature of this heaven was concerned, "darkness 
covered the earth and gross darkness the people." The 
saving knowledge of God had well-nigh disappeared from 
among men. Gradually, as idolatry spread in the earth, 
and iniquity prevailed, and the personal, domestic, and 
social life of the nations was corrupted by the pollutions 
of false religions, the heaven of divine holiness and good- 
ness, of divine truth and love was closed to men, until, in 
the end, its glories were altogether hidden from their 
view. Once it had been, at least, partly open to human 
eyes. "The invisible things of God, from the creation of 
the world, were clearly seen, being understood by the 
things that were made; even His eternal power and God- 
head." Voices of nature spoke of divine wisdom and 
goodness to those who had ears to hear. God drew near 
and revealed Himself to men who sought His face. 
Enoch walked with Him. Abraham was His friend, 
admitted into very close fellowship with Him. Melchize^ 
deck was His priest. Moses endured as seeing Him. 
Elijah prevailed with Him in prayer. Isaiah saw His 
glory. Here and there, over the earth, in all ages, were 
men to whom heaven was not altogether closed; whose 



52 



THE OPENING OF HEAVEN. 



supplication and thanksgiving ascended to its courts, and 
whose souls were cheered and strengthened by more or 
less distinct messages of grace and love descending from 
its heights to inspire and bless them. But the great ma- 
jority of men, "When they knew God glorified Him not 
as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their 
imagination and their foolish heart was darkened. Pro- 
fessing themselves wise they became fools, and changed 
the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made 
like to corruptible men and birds and four-footed beasts 
and creeping things." 

The crime of refusing to retain God in their knowledge 
and so shutting against themselves the whole heaven of 
His perfections, issued in the substitution of a hideous 
hell for that glorious heaven; the putting in the; place of 
the true God and the heaven of His holiness and love, 
deified demons along with beastly lusts and satanic pas- 
sions personified and worshipped. The famines and pesti- 
lences that wasted the lives of men were sad enough, but 
sadder far was that famine of divine truth which their 
sins brought upon them in which millions of souls miser- 
ably perished; and woeful beyond expression were the 
pestilent idolatries and superstitions that usurped the 
place of the true religion and cursed the spiritual man- 
hood of the nations with spiritual diseases more loathsome 
and deadly than leprosy itself. That appalling crime of 
man, — the closing in his own face of the heaven of God's 
glory, whose light once gladdened the earth, was followed 
by the loss of the use of the spiritual faculties that appre- 
hend God and divine things; and then, alas! men found 
that the heaven they had closed it was not possible for them 
to open. 



THE OPENING OF HEAVEN. 



53 



Most earnest and persevering efforts were made to do 
this, — to recover the lost knowledge of God. Great souls 
with spiritual aspirations toward <an infinite goodness' stirr- 
ing within them, sought to rise above the hell of falsities 
and miseries into which rejection of the true God had 
plunged the race, and to attain a vision of the goodness and 
glory they longed to see; but faint indeed were the glimpses 
of it that cheered the eyes' of the most clear-sighted among 
them. Alas! heaven was so fast closed that the greatest 
intellects among the myriads of Arabia, of Egypt, of 
China, of India, of Greece and Rome, searching century 
after century for the knowledge of the true God, — for 
some opening through the thick darkness that surrounded 
them and that hid from them the light of His glory, ended 
the search in despair. To the Hebrews heaven had been 
more widely open than to any other people, but the reve- 
lation of God given to them through inspired men had 
been so perverted by misleading interpretations and false 
traditions that Jesus, classing the Jews with the heathen 
as also with them in fatal ignorance of God, in a sorrow 
of soul too deep for us to fathom, cried, "O righteous Fath- 
er, the world hath not known thee." 

The unutterably deplorable facts presented to the mind 
of the Son of Man as He enters upon His earthly ministry 
are these, God unknown; an almost universal and total 
ignorance of His real name, His mind, His heart, His 
will; human soul® instinctively, irrepressibly yearning for 
a something above them, a supreme good they cannot 
define; in their self-inflicted blindness, feeling piteously 
for One whom they must find and know, or perish ; unable 
to find Him ; not at all certain that He really is, or if He is, 



54: 



THE OPENING OF HEAVEN. 



whether He in any way concerns Himself about the souls of 
men; whether He loves or hates them; whether He hears 
prayer; whether He forgives sin; whether He saves them 
who cry to Him for salvation, or is altogether indifferent to 
their wants and woes; heaven closed, its gates shut; 
its light hidden; darkness, nothing but darkness in that 
direction; men without God and without hope; the na- 
tions bowing down to idols; human souls perishing for 
lack of the knowledge they had refused to retain: — this 
is the scene that stirs the compassionate heart of the Son 
of Man ; and it is the blessed, glorious antithesis of all this 
that He pictures and promises in the words, " Verily, ver- 
ily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open 
and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the 
Son of Man." 

"Ye shall see heaven open," shall know Him whom to 
know is life eternal; the light of the knowledge of His 
glory shall shine in your hearts ; the sublime realties of the 
spiritual world shall be unveiled to your view, and the ra- 
diance of the infinite love and mercy and grace of the heav- 
ly Father shall illumine your whole journey through time. 
This exceeding great and precious promise, given by the 
Lord Jesus, was fulfilled in the life that He lived here 
upon the earth. The words of divine truth and grace He 
spoke; the miracles of mercy He wrought; the daily man- 
ifestations of the divine righteousness and love that were 
in His heart; the shining forth from His face of the light 
of the glory of God that filled His soul, were indeed the 
opening of heaven to His disciples and to all who believe 
upon Him. 



THE OPENING OF HEAVEN. 



55 



You remember how, when sorrowing for our benighted 
and lost race, He cried, "O righteous Father, the world 
hath not known thee," He immediately added, "but I 
have known thee, and these have known that thou hast 
sent me, and I have declared unto them thy name and will 
declare it" — have revealed to them thy glory and will 
reveal it. Day by day, in that unveiling of His heart 
which inspired them with unquestioning faith; which 
drew and bound them to Him in a sacred devotion stronger 
than death, and bowed their souls before the majestic 
loveliness of His character in an adoration that purified 
and ennobled them, He was opening heaven to them; — 
revealing the true, the real heaven of God's personality 
and Fatherhood and holy love and tender mercy and per- 
fect righteousness and unsearchable riches of grace. 

This, the real heaven, with all its blessedness and splen- 
dors, it was possible for Him to open, and this heaven He 
has opened, because He is "Emmanuel, God with us," — 
not God far away beyond the stars, hid from human eyes 
by impenetrable clouds of ignorance, but "God with us," 
God manifest in the flesh, the brightness of the Father's 
glory, the express image of His person," making visible, 
in a divine human life, the inner sanctuary of His being, 
— the holy of holies of His own heart, in which is the ful- 
ness of the Godhead. And so, when that divine life he lived 
on the plane of our manhood, stainless in its sanctity, 
sublime in its immaculate holiness, absolutely perfect in 
its righteousness, and yet tenderly compassionate, full of 
grace, rich in pardoning mercy, infinitely loving towards 
sinful and guilty men, — when that divine life was enter- 
ing the shadow of the cross on which He died to redeem 



56 THE OPENING OF HEAVEN. 

a lost world, then He said, "He that hath seen me hath 
seen the Father also/' — He that hath beheld my face hath 
looked into the open heaven of the heart of God. 

Jesus, the Christ, has opened heaven, has revealed to 
us its innermost, sublimest, most sacred verities. In Him 
we see and know that our God is not mere abstract being, 
nor an impersonal stream of tendency that makes for 
righteousness, but that He is a living person who knows, 
who loves, who sympathizes, who wields power, who rules 
on earth and in heaven, who is adorable in all the excel- 
lencies of a perfect character, who hears prayer, who 
pardons sin, who prizes and even asks our love, who ac- 
cepts our services, and is pleased by all our efforts to please 
Him. This revelation and vision of the mind and heart 
of the heavenly Father, given by Jesus is indeed the 
opening of heaven, an opening of heaven that transfigures 
the whole universe to us, that chases' away the darkness that 
enshrouded the old world in hopeless ignorance by the 
celestial light that floods a world made new by the rising 
upon it of the Sun of righteousness; that changes human 
life from a dreary struggle to maintain an almost worth- 
less existence into a daily walking with God towards a 
blessed immortality; that transforms men from pitiful 
playthings of blind fortune, or helpless, miserable subjects 
of an iron fate, into holy and happy children of the heav- 
enly Father. 

2. This opening of heaven by the Lord Jesus, re-es- 
tablishes peaceful relations and free communion between 
heaven and earth. "Hereafter ye shall see heaven open 
and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the 
Son of Man." 



THE OPENING OF HEAVEN. 



57 



These angels are not personal beings, but personified 
communications, messages that angels might bear, prayers 
and their answers, — prayers divinely inspired, and so an- 
gels of God, ascending from the heart of man on e'arth, — 
answers from the divine heart, and so angels of God, 
descending from on high. Up to that heaven which the 
Son of Man has opened, out of the abyss of man's need, 
cries for relief ascend in Christ's name, and, responsive to 
these cries, from the heaven of God's loving heart, through 
the mediation of Christ, riches of grace descend into the 
prayer soul. 

With heaven closed, what a wretched being is man, how 
defenceless and full of fear amidst the mysterious and 
mighty forces that threaten every moment to crush him; 
subject to pain, to sickness, to suffering, to sorrow, inexpli- 
cable; doomed to die; his life marked by experiences that 
tend towards despair, and that did issue in an ever deep- 
ening despair throughout the world when no light from 
on high shone upon human life and destiny. 

But now that heaven is opened up to that infinitely loving 
heart of God which is the center of it, out of these bitter, 
supplications ascend, — not despairing wails, but believing 
prayers; and from that open heaven angels of God de- 
scend; divine communications out of the very heart of 
God through Christ, assuring us that a heavenly Father's 
wisdom and love are in every force that touches us, order- 
ing our steps, choosing our changes and making all things 
work together for our good. 

Burdened with the consciousness of sin, laden with 
guilt, depraved in heart, condemned by their own con- 
science as men were, it came to pass while heaven was 

(4) 



58 



THE OPENING OF HEAVEN. 



closed to them, that their guilty fears peopled its courts 
with falsehoods, wrath and vengeance. But heaven is open 
now, a heavenly Father's love is the light of it, and man's 
sense of guiltiness finds voice in prayers for pardon, and 
his sense of uncleanness in prayers for purity, and his 
sense of depravity in prayers for renewing by the Holy 
Ghost; and these angels ascending upon the Son of Man ; — 
these pleading messages from contrite human hearts, going 
up to God through the mediation of Christ, are answered 
from on high by messages of pardon sealed upon con- 
science; by the sprinkling of that blood which makes the 
soul whiter than snow; by the transforming power of the 
Holy Spirit which changes the believer into the image of 
God. Angels ascending, telling of penitence and desires 
for pardon and purity, are met by angels of God descend- 
ing, bringing forgiveness and peace and salvation. 

In the divine idea and purpose, and as created, man is 
the living, holy temple of the Most High, filled by His 
indwelling with divine life and light and joy. Alas ! this 
temple has been entered by sin; emptied of all that is 
divine; left dark, desolate, denied; and while heaven was 
closed, was becoming ever more and more a hopeless ruin. 
But, now that heaven is open by the manifestation in 
Christ of the glory of the God of love and grace-, hope is 
quickened in the midst of this' ruin ; and out of its darkness 
and desolateness, trustful prayers ascend; and from the 
open heaven of divine compassion recreative power re- 
sponds, the ruin is restored to its original perfectness; and 
God returns to His dwelling place, and the soul of man is 
dine more the living, holy and beautiful temple of the 
Most High. 



THE OPENING OF HEAVEN. 



59 



The angels ascend and descend "upon the Son of Man." 
Christ is the one medium of communication between 
heaven and earth, — the "one mediator between God and 
man." He Himself said, "No man cometh to the Father 
but by me." It is only through Him that we know the 
Father. It is only when our prayers are offered in His 
name that we have any assurance that they are heard and 
answered. The angels ascend "upon the Son of Man," or 
they never reach heaven. Our supplications and praises 
enter the ear and touch the heart of God only when they 
go up through the mediation of Christ and are mixed by 
faith in Him. Saving divine influences, angels of Cod, 
descending from heaven, can never come to us unless they 
descend "upon the Son of Man." Cod deals with us in 
the sanctifying and saving work of grace only through 
Jesus Christ. "No interchange between heaven and earth 
of prayers and answers, of supplications and pardons 
granted, of hungerings after righteousness and. righteous u 
ness imparted, can there ever be except through Him. 
The angels of Cod ascend and descend no otherwise than 
upon the Son of Man. 

Heaven is open, but you may turn your back upon its 
glory, as Mathew Arnold did, you may substitute the per- 
sonal, all wise, infinitely loving Heavenly Father by an 
impersonal stream of tendency making for righteousness ; 
and you may sing all your life, as he did, of light and 
sweetness, but you shall find that there is a darkness in 
your soul that the light of which you sing cannot dispel, 
and a sorrow in your heart that turns the sweetness' into 
bitterness. Heaven is open; but as Col. Ingersoll did, 
you may close your eyes to the glory of God shining from 



CO 



THE OPENING OF HEAVEN. 



thence in the face of Jesus Christ ; if so when you stand in 
some night of grief as he stood at the grave of a brother 
dear to him, you may speak in words eloquent as his of the 
tremblingly neld possibility of a future life, but there shall 
be in your eloquent words, as in his, a tone of inconsolable 
sorrow that it shall be heart-breaking to hear. 

The rather, believing upon the Lord Jesus Christ, from 
your trusting, adoring hearts, let prayers and praises daily 
go up to the open heaven, — angels ascending upon the Son 
of Man, and by Him entering the heart of the eternal 
Father, the holy of holies of that heaven; and so, day by 
day, the angels of Gk>d shall descend from thence, — mes- 
sages of love, ministries of grace, sanctifying divine influ- 
ences, reaching you through Christ, bringing to you out 
of the heart of God, divine life, true holiness, a peace that 
passeth all understanding, pure and permanent blessedness; 



SERMON V. 



FELLOWS HHP WITH THE FATHER AND WITH 
HIS SON, JESUS CHRIST. 

"That which was from the 'beginning, which we have heard, 
which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, 
and our hands have handled, of the Word of life: 

("For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and 
bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life which was 
with the Father and was manifested unto us:) 

"That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, 
that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellow- 
ship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. 

"And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be 
full. I John 1: 1-4. 

Systems of philosophy address themselves to the trained 
intellect, and seek the suffrages of scholars. Christianity 
appeals to man's spiritual consciousness, — to spiritual needs 
and aspirations that as truly mark the experience of the 
most ignorant as of the most learned. The evidences upon 
which systems of philosophy depend for acceptance can be 
sifted and weighed only by long and difficult mental pro- 
cesses of which none but the highly cultivated are capable. 
But Christianity proposes as its end the salvation of men of 
all degrees of culture and of no culture, and its evidences 
therefore are on a level with the common sense of common 
people. 

It is founded upon certain great facts. Its spirit 
moulded the character and was manifested in the works of 
a certain great Person called in the text, "the life, the 
Word of life and that eternal life which was with the 



62 FELLOWSHIP WITH THE FATHER AND HIS SON. 

Father." It claims our faith on the basis of the testimony 
of certain men who mere eye-witnesses of these facts, and 
who, for years, were in daily association with this person. 
The facts to which they testify and the character and 
works of the person to whom they bear witness are such 
that, if their testimony be true, then Christianity is the 
absolute religion, — divine in its origin, divine in its 
nature, and supreme in its authority over conscience. 

In so far as the claims of the gospel are submitted to the 
decisions of the reasoning faculty alone, there is but one 
question involved, — the credibility of the men who appear 
as witnesses for Jesus. However mysterious the facts to 
which they testify, however many or great the mysteries 
that center about the person of Him whom they declare 
unto us, if it is once demonstrated that they were neither 
themselves deceived nor the wilful deceivers of their fellow 
men, we are compelled to accept their testimony, and along 
with that, the gospel they preach. 

But the thorough honesty of these witnesses, no sane 
man can question. They knew that, in appearing as wit- 
nesses for Jesus, they would subject themselves to social 
ostracism, to persecution, to martyrdom. All these things 
did come upon them, and yet, to the end, their testimony 
is marked by the same confident tone that characterized it 
in the beginning. They were hated by all men for 
Christ's sake. They were denounced as apostates, were 
imprisoned, were scourged, were stoned, were put to death; 
but not one of them ever recanted or modified his testimony 
concerning Jesus. 

We cannot deny their integrity without affirming what 
is absolutely incredible. If they were not honest, then, 



FELLOWSHIP WITH THE FATHER AND HIS SON. 63 

without any conceivable motive, they agreed together to 
testify to what they knew to be false, persisted in proclaim- 
ing falsehoods as divine truths despite the daily sufferings 
which they hereby brought upon themselves, became will- 
ing martyrs in order to give currency to a fable, and 
gloried in being counted worthy to endure torture and 
death for the sake of a lie that could profit them nothing 
in this world or the world to coma The men of whom 
these things can be affirmed have never been born. 

Consider this further fact — the religion founded upon 
their testimony is a holy religion. It condemns every kind 
and degree of immorality, and demands of men a perfect 
righteousness. But it is inconceivable, if the apostles of 
our Lord were unprincipled liars, that they would have sub- 
mitted to bonds and imprisonment and death in order to 
establish a holy religion in the earth; and, if they were 
good men, it was morally impossible for them to band them- 
selves together to delude their fellow men and establish a 
false religion on a foundation of lies. Whoever affirms 
that the apostles knowingly bare false witness concerning 
Jesus, hereby discounts His own intelligence. Their hon- 
esty is attested as that of few other men ever has been. 

But were they not themselves deceived? I am free to 
confess that what they allege as facts are so wonderful, so 
different from anything else that ever occurred in the 
sphere of human observation, that the bare possibility of 
mistake on their part, would warrant serious doubt as to 
their credibility. But their statement of the case shows 
that there was no such possibility. As in the text, so uni- 
formly, they declare that their testimony is based upon the 
evidence of their senses and the facts of their consciousness. 
They affirm, that they saw Jesus walk on the water and 



6-i FELLOWSHIP WITH THE FATHER AND HIS SON. 

were present when He commanded obedience from the 
winds and waves; that they handled and distributed the 
few barley loaves and fishes by the miraculous multiplica- 
tion of which He fed five thousand hungry men, besides 
women and children, and that they gathered up of the 
fragments twelve baskets full; that they saw Him open 
the eyes of men born blind, impart perfect soundness of 
fiesh to the leper and raise the dead to life, — a maiden who 
had just breathed her last, a young man as he was borne to 
the grave, and Lazarus after he had been four days dead. 
About the thousands of miracles wrought by Jesus in op-n 
day and upon men, women and children, between whom 
and Himself there was no possibility of collusion, the 
apostles could not have been mistaken. Either Jesus 
actually perf ormed these miracles, or the apostles, knowing 
that He did not, have borne false witness. 

But, leaving all these out of the question, consider the 
resurrection of Jesus Himself, the miracle that makes all 
His other miracles credible, and that demonstrates His own 
divinity and the divinity of the gospel also. That Jesus 
was crucified, dead and buried; that His tomb was closed, 
sealed and guarded; that, had He revived, he could not 
have rolled away the stone at the mouth of the sepulchre 
and escaped from the midst of the soldiers set to watch His 
tomb; that the disciples had no money with which to bribe 
these soldiers, -and no weapons or military skill by which to 
overpower them; that they could not have opened the grave 
and stolen the body of Jesus while the soldiers slept, and, 
indeed, had no motive to attempt a deed so dangerous; 
that, nevertheless, the body of Jesus disappeared, are facts 
that few have the hardihood to dispute. What then 



FELLOWSHIP WITH THE FATHER AND HIS SON. 65 

became of the crucified Jesus? His disciples affirm that 
He rose from the dead and that He was repeatedly seen 
of them all after His resurrection. It was not possible for 
them to have been mistaken as to His identity. They 
knew every feature of His face and every tone of His voice. 
A stranger could not have imposed Himself upon them 
as the Jesus whom they had known so long and loved so 
devotedly. Their own imagination could not have mislead 
them. Their own hopes could not have deluded them. 
They had no hope. It did not once enter their thought 
that Jesus would rise from the dead. The shock of his 
shameful death, which they had not for a moment appre- 
hended, paralyzed the faith of every one of them. All 
their expectations perished when He bowed His head upon 
the cross and gave up the ghost. In the presence of this 
wholly unlooked for and awful tragedy they were disap- 
pointed, defeated, hopeless men. The first appearance of 
Jesus among them after He was risen took them by surprise 
and filled them with alarm. But He appeared to them 
again and again, until their amazement and fear ended in 
the joyous assurance that their Lord was indeed risen from 
them dead. They affirm that, for forty days after His 
resurrection, He was often in their midst; that He ate with 
them and talked to them; and that, in broad daylight, in 
full view of them all, He ascended up into heaven. They 
could not possibly have been deceived in regard to these 
facts. Either Jesus rose from the dead, or His disciples 
invented the story of His resurrection, and published it to 
the world, knowing that it was not true. 

But that they themselves fully believed in the resurrec- 
tion of Jesus is manifest from the transformation wrought 



66 FELLOWSHIP WITH THE FATHER AND HIS SON. 

in them by this faith. Before He rose they were shrouded 
in the gloom of an overwhelming defeat. Afterwards 
they were filled with the joy of an assured triumph. Be- 
fore, they had no spirit left in them; their courage was 
clean gone; they were as frightened sheep without a 
shepherd. Afterwards, even the cowardly Peter, who 
panic striken by the arrest of J esus, denied all knowledge 
of him, preached this same Jesus fearlessly, in the streets 
of the city that slew Him and to the men who had cruci- 
fied Him. 

Over and above all these facts to which the apostles 
were eye and ear witnesses, they affirm that they lived in 
conscious fellowship with the risen Christ every day; that 
He dwelt in their hearts and was the life of their souls. 
This testimony, borne by their lips, was confirmed by the 
life they lived, — a life that was a daily manifestation of 
the very spirit of life that was in Christ Jesus. They 
could not have been deceived as to the things covered by 
their testimony; and could not have been wilful deceivers 
of others in this momentous business. No intelligent, 
impartial jury, ever impanelled, would refuse to accept 
their witness as truth itself. Consider the fact as we may, 
the only rational conclusion is that the personal Word of 
God, His eternal Son, has been manifested on the earth. 

In the text, He is called "the life, and that eternal life 
which was with the Father." These descriptive names 
were not given Him without good reason. They were 
applied to Him by the apostle under the inspiration of the 
Holy Ghost and mean much. Jesus is not only the per- 
sonal Word of God who has risen from the dead and is 
alive forevermore, but, in His relations to us men, he is 



FELLOWSHIP WITH THE FATHER AND HIS SON. 67 

life itself. He is not only the living and life-giving Son 
of God, but the eternal life of them that believe. Who- 
ever, therefore, "hath the Son hath life, and He that hath 
not the Son of God hath not life." 

This is an essential truth. It is rooted in the original 
and enduring order of the spiritual world. The true life 
and eternal is not inherent in our spiritual manhood and 
inseparable from it. In his highest nature man is a spir- 
itual organism capable of being filled with life. This life, 
however, the lif e of his soul, is not a quality but a person, 
even the eternal Son of God, who is the eternal life of 
men. "I live not," that is, in and of myself, I am not 
possessed of spiritual life, "I live not, but Christ liveth 
in me" and is my life; this is a true account of the 
experience of every one who is spiritually alive. Christ 
Jesus, living in the soul, mediating spiritual union be- 
tween the believer and God, is the true life and eternal, — 
the life in which originate all holy thoughts of men, all 
pure loves and right principles. "He that hath the Son," 
whatever he may lack of refinement in manner, or of 
mental culture, "hath life," spiritual, eternal life, "and he 
that hath not the Son of God," whatever else he may 
have, "hath not life," but is dead in trespasses and in sins. 

Christ, the life has been manifested and has been 
declared unto us by His apostles, that, receiving Him into 
the faith and love of our souls as our life we may have 
"fellowship" with them in their "fellowship with the 
Father and with His Son Jesus Christ," 

"Fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus 
Christ:" — these are wonderful words, — among the most 
wonderful, I think, that were ever written; and all the 



68 FELLOWSHIP WITH THE FATHER AND HIS SON. 

more wonderful because found in the Book which trans- 
cends all others in its sublime representations of the 
majesty and holiness and glory of Godhead, and which 
exceeds all others in its humiliating pictures of the de- 
pravity and sinfulness 1 and guilt of man. That we should 
stand in awe of God, fear, adore and obey Him, is a truth 
that is level with the world's conception of our proper 
relation to the Most High; but that any class of men on 
earth should say, "truly our fellowship is with the Father 
and with His Son Jesus Christ," is far above the plane of 
its thought, and something it is apt to regard as indicative 
of an unwarranted and dangerous enthusiasm. But 
these words are not the rhapsody of a religious enthusiast. 
They were not uttered in a moment of religious ecstasy. 
They are the well considered and calmly written expres- 
sion of daily experience, and tell what was the most 
prominent and clearly defined element in the heart his- 
tory of men who were as much noted for their practical 
sense as for their exalted piety. They embody the central 
facts of Christian consciousness; set before us a privilege 
and indicate a blessedness to the enjoyment of which the 
gospel invites every man and woman on earth. 

These words could not ever have been a true account 
of the experience of any child of Adam but for the fact 
that man was made in the image and after the likeness 
of God. Fellowship with the Most High was provided 
for in the plan of His creation and His spiritual perfection 
and blessedness were herein conditioned upon his realizing 
and maintaining this fellowship. He was created to 
know and love and commune with the eternal Father 
through the eternal Son and to be the habitation of God 



FELLOWSHIP WITH THE FATHER AND HIS SON. 69 

through the eternal Spirit. And when, by sin, he entered 
into a spiritual state in which this experience was impos- 
sible to him, then the personal Word of God, who is the 
true life was manifested to redeem him from sin and 
mediate spiritual union between him and God, that, in 
this union, he might have life and have it more abundantly. 

"Truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His 
Son Jesus Christ." "We need to pray that the spirit of 
all truth may lift up our thought to the sublime height, and 
enlarge our conceptions to some correspondence with the 
magnitude of this great theme. 

They who have received Christ into their hearts as the 
life of their souls have intellectual fellowship with the 
Father and with His Son Jesus Christ in a sense in which 
unspiritual men do not and cannot. The pious Kepler, 
when he discovered the laws of nature which bear his 
name and which have been applied with such wonderful 
results in the science of astronomy, thrilled and exalted 
by the consciousness of the fact that he had pressed his 
way into the very council chamber of the Creator, devoutly 
raised his eyes to heaven and cried, "O God, I am thinking 
thy thoughts after thee." 

All truth embodied in nature was first in the divine 
mind ; and in studying nature, learning the laws that con- 
trol the mighty forces everywhere operative, noting the 
delicate and intricate relations that subsist between the 
myriad parts of the great whole, and seeing the unfolding 
results of that labor of which Solomon says all things are 
full, our minds commune with the divine mind, we think 
God's thoughts and have fellowship with Him in the 
counsels that planned a universe and called it into being. 



70 FELLOWSHIP WITH THE FATHER AND HIS SON. 

God w as the first astronomer; for He created the sun 
and moon and stars, described their orbits and determined 
their seasons. God was the first mathematician; for He 
made all things by number and weight and measure. God 
was the first botanist; for He arrayed the lily and the rose 
in the attractiveness of their rich colorings; and every 
violet, every hyacinth, every chrysanthemum, that adorns 
our gardens is the blossoming on earth of a beautiful 
thought of our Father in heaven. God was the first geol- 
ogist; for He called into being the flora and fauna whose 
f ossil remains reveal the history of past ages, and piled in 
order, one upon another the strata where these remains lie 
buried. God was the first musician; for the accordant 
perfections of His nature are blended in that sublime 
spiritual harmony which is the source of all harmonies. 
Whatever, therefore, the art or science that engages our 
thought, in so far as we pierce to the heart of things and 
learn what are the great, universal truths that are the 
substratum and support of all that is, we think God's 
thoughts and have mental fellowship with the Father and 
with His Son Jesus Christ. While this is true of every 
man who studies and understands the works of the Lord, 
yet it never comes forth into the clear light of conscious- 
ness and never thrills the soul with a sense of personal 
contact with the Most High until man is quickened by the 
indwelling of Him who is the true life. 

But believers enjoy intellectual fellowship with God on a 
higher plane than this, when they study and comprehend 
tfhe wise, holy and loving thoughts He has emboided 
and made manifest in the person and work of Him who 
came that we might have life. In the incarnation, the 



FELLOWSHIP WITH THE FATHER AND HIS SON. 71 

vicarious sufferings, the sacrificial death and resurrection 
of His only begotten Son, the Father has revealed what 
were the gracious counsels of Godhead, before the world 
was, respecting our race as fallen and ruined by sin. 
"The riches of the glory of the mystery which was hid 
from ages and generations," He has made known to us by 
Jesus Christ, "in whom we have redemption through His 
blood, even the f orgiveness of sin, according to the riches 
of His grace; wherein He hath abounded toward us in all 
wisdom and prudence; having made known unto us the 
mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which 
He hath purposed in Himself; that in the dispensation of 
the fulness of time He might gather together in one all 
things, in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are 
on the earth." While, therefore, we meditate upon the com- 
ing, the offices and the work of Christ; upon His atoning 
death, His resurrection and glorification at the right hand 
of God; upon the outpouring of the Holy Ghost, His 
quickening and sanctifying influences, His transforming 
grace and indwelling in the saints; and study the rise and 
progress and prophetic triumph of the Church on earth; 
and contemplate that manifestation of the sons of God in 
which the heavy, crushing curse under which the whole 
creation groans and travails together in pain, shall be 
removed, and the blessing of God shall come down upon 
land and sea, upon tree and flower, upon bird and beast, 
upon manhood and womanhood, upon childhood and old 
age, and the glory of the Highest — shall cover the whole 
earth, and all holy angels and saintly men shall be 
gathered together in one in Christ, crowned with immortal 
honor, shining in the similitude of the glory of the Lord, 



72 FELLOWSHIP WITH THE FATHER AND HIS SOX. 

unspeakably blessed forevermore in the eternal city, — 
then we are thinking the sublime and loving thoughts of 
God, and have intellectual fellowship with Him on the 
highest plane of His glorious purposes. 

This mental fellowship with the Father and with His 
Son Jesus Christ shall never end. In the assurance of 
this fact, we have before us the prospect of an intellectual 
development and spiritual exaltation to which there are no 
conceivable limits. Forever and forever, "the glory of the 
mystery of the will of God in Christ" shall more and more 
unveil its riches to our minds; forever and forever "the 
spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of God" 
shall be poured upon us in larger and larger measure ; for- 
ever and forever we shall know, from blessed experience, 
more and more fully, what are "the riches of the glory of 
His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding 
greatness of His power to usward who believe, according to 
the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in 
Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him 
at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all 
principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and 
every name that is named, not only in this world, but also 
in that which is to come ; and hath put all things under His 
feet, and given Him to be the head over all things to the 
Church, which is His body, the fullness of Him that filleth 
all in all." 

But there is a fellowship with God in respect to His will 
in Christ Jesus more honorable in itself and more ennob- 
ling in its issues than even that of fully knowing what 
that will is. He has revealed to us the riches of the glory 
of His will in Christ, that He may engage our energies in 



FELLOWSHIP WITH THE FATHER AND HIS SON. 73 

its accomplishment. He invites and welcomes us to that 
closeness of fellowship with himself which is implied in 
our becoming "workers together with Him." 

"Workers together with God," — what a sublime fellow- 
ship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ is 
indicated by these words. The infinite resources of God- 
head are invested in the plan by which Father, Son and 
Holy Spirit are working to save the souls of men, to trans- 
form sinners into saints, and to perfect that holy and 
universal Church which is to abide forever, the fulness of 
Him which nlleth all in all. The thought of God, embod- 
ied in this grand and gracious plan, has entered our minds, 
has kindled our enthusiasm has enlisted our affections and 
energies; and, in holy fellowship with Him, in a blessed 
unity of interest and purpose, we are workers together with 
Him ; and the very heart-beats of Jehovah are: felt by us in 
the throbbings of spiritual life in our souls; and, while God 
works in us to will and to do, we work out our own salva- 
tion, and work together with Him to rescue the perishing 
and to build and beautify the Church of Christ, striving 
according to His working, which worketh in us mightily. 

Sanctifying and saving the souls of men on earth, God 
designs to build thenn together into a holy temple in 
heaven, his own eternal habitation through the Spirit. 
This present world is the Lebanon forest and the quarry 
where the timbers are hewed and the living stones are 
shaped and polished for the building of that temple which 
is to abide forever, the highest expression of divine wisdom 
and grace, the perfection of beauty, the glory of the uni- 
verse, the sublimest work of the Most High. What it is 
to be in the symmetry and grandeur of its proportions, in 
5) 



7-i FELLOWSHIP WITH THE FATHER AND HIS SON. 

the priceless worth of the substances of which it is builded, 
in the magnificence of its ornamentation and the glory with 
which it shall be illumined by the indwelling of Godhead, 
no mind of man or of angel can conceive. The inspired 
imagery by which St. John seeks to describe it, but dimly 
indicates its indescribable splendors. Neither the precious- 
ness of pure gold, paving its courts; nor the beauty of pearl 
and topaz flaming in its gates; nor the brilliancy of emer- 
ald and amethyst, shining along its aisles, can do more than 
suggest its unspeakable glories. Its chief corner stone is 
the Son of God Himelf ; its foundation stones are prophets 
and apostles; its pillars, its walls, its ornaments, the whole 
temple, from base to topmost pinnacle is builded of glorified 
saints, every one shining in the likeness of the glorified 
Christ. This glorious temple of God, instinct throughout 
with divine life, vocal with divine harmonies, filled with 
divine joy, is now building, and every one of you is called, 
by setting a good example, by wielding a good influence, 
by instructing the ignorant, by lifting up the fallen, to a 
fellowship of working with the Father and His Son Jesus 
Christ on earth, that shall issue in fellowship with your 
Lord in heaven in that joy that shall fill His heart when 
the temple is finished and the capstone is brought forth 
with shoutings of grace, grace unto it. Walk worthy of 
this high and holy calling. Put into your work the zeal 
of loving hearts and the energy of souls that glow under 
the inspiration of the very thought of God: and so you 
shall have every day and all the day long the blessedness 
of those whose experience finds expression in the words, 
"truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son 
Jesus Christ." 



FELLOWSHIP WITH THE FATHER AND HIS SON. 75 

There is a closeness of fellowship with God beyond that 
of the fellowship of thought or the fellowship of working. 
Christians have heart communion with the Father and 
with His Son Jesus Christ. Jesus said, "If a man love 
me, my Father will love Him, and we will come to Him 
and make our abode with Him." St. John writes , "He 
that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him." 
Believers enjoy conscious spiritual fellowship with the 
Father and with Christ. 

On the divine side of this fellowship there are infinite 
love, manifesting itself, and infinite riches of grace, flow- 
ing from this love into the believers soul; and infinite ten- 
derness of divine sympathy, enfolding the saints in its 
embrace; and infinite power, protecting them; and infinite 
wisdom, guiding them; and the personal presence of the 
Father, Son and Holy Spirit always with them. On the 
human side of this fellowship there are upliftings of the 
heart in adoration and grateful praises, and the soul's con- 
tact with God in filial trust and love, and the going forth 
of the believer's thought along paths of truth and right- 
eousness under the influence of the Holy Ghost, and the 
investment of time and energy in a glad, harmonious work- 
ing together with God. 

But the sacred secrets of this heart-communion with 
God cannot be put into human speech. No words can tell 
what refinement of sentiment, what exaltation of thought, 
what tenderness of conscience, what sweet, pervading gen- 
tleness, what fervors of devotion, what kindlings of holy 
love, what chastened bliss, what celestial rapture, pervad- 
ing every element of his spiritual manhood, are experi- 
enced by the Christian when he feels the touches of divine 



76 FELLOWSHIP WITH THE FATHER AND HIS SOX. 

power and grace, and the light of the Father's face shines 
upon him, and Christ reveals his presence, and the Holy 
Ghost baptizes him with grace, and the whole Godhead 
responds from on high in tender mercies and loving kind- 
ness and gracious benedictions to the upliftings of his soul 
in love and adoration. 

O beloved, there is a "life hid with Christ in God," a 
life of which this heart fellowship with the Father and 
with His Son Jesus Christ is the condition, and which has 
all its openings of thought and feeling, of love and hope in 
this fellowship. Spiritual communion with God is the 
most assured fact of Christian consciousness. It deter- 
mines the spirit of the believer's mind, gives tone to his 
thinking, shapes his life-plans, moulds his character, is the 
spring of all his joys, the life of all his delights. 

Having set before us the provision made in the gospel 
for our entrance into fellowship with God, St. John adds 
— "these things write I unto you that your joy may be 
full." Fulness of joy is indeed the heritage of the man 
in whom Christ dwells as the life of his soul, who thinks 
God's thoughts, walks and works together with the Lord, 
and has daily heart communion with Him. Fellowship 
of thought with God is a fountain of joy. It affords that 
pure delight which comes from the possession and assimi- 
lation of highest, essential truth. Fellowship of working 
together with God is a fountain of joy. There is an 
unspeakable gladness of heart in the knowledge that one's 
time and energies are invested in a work worthy to engage 
all the faculties of an immortal spirit, — a work in which 
the Most High delights Himself and that shall bear fruit in 
glory and honor and eternal life. Fellowship with God in 



FELLOWSHIP WITH THE FATHER AND HIS SON. 77 

spirit is a fountain of joy. To love God with a pure 
heart fervently, to know oneself loved of him, to live in 
conscious harmony with him, to walk in the sunshine of 
His smile, is a joy than which the angels have no higher. 
And wherever all these kinds of fellowship with God 
meet in the experience of a human soul, there is fullness 
of joy. The most truly and profoundly blessed man in 
this world is the man who is in the closest and most con- 
stant fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus 
Christ. 

May the Holy Spirit unveil to you glorious meanings in 
the text that are beyond my power to interpret, and cause 
the light of whatever truth it embodies that is now hidden 
from me to shine upon your hearts, and enable you to live 
on that high plane of spiritual fellowship with the Father 
and with His Son Jesus Christ which shall not only in- 
sure to you fulness of joy on earth but shall fit you to 
dwell forever with His saints in His immediate presence 
in heaven. 



SERMON VI. 



PERSONAL INFLUENCE. 

"Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a cor- 
rupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit." iSt. Matthew vii:17. 

Every man is the source of spiritual influences that bless 
or that curse his fellow men: and his character, whether 
good or bad, the spirit that rules in his heart, whether 
pure or impure, whether christly or satanic, gives tone to 
whatever influence he exerts and determines the moral 
quality of its results. 

The relations of men to each other are such, they are 
bound together by so many domestic and social ties ,that 
no man can live in the world without influencing his f el- 
lowmen for weal or for woe. A divinely ordained fellow- 
ship among men is mediated by numberless mental and 
spiritual affinities: and, through the sensitive tendrils 
that every human heart entwines about other hearts, the 
pulsations of each are felt and responded to by all. The 
constitution of human nature necessitates social life, and 
the existence of society necessarily implies the exercise of 
an influence by its members, one upon another. If men 
were wholly unaffected by social intercourse ; if they ex- 
perienced no quickening of the intellect from the inter- 
change of thought, and no excitement of the emotional 
nature from the interplay of feeling; and no warming of 
the heart from the communion of friend with friend, they 
would have no motive to seek the companionship of their 
fellowmen, and there would be no such thing as social life. 



PEKSONAL INFLUENCE. 



79 



Personal influence is inseparable from the mental and 
moral endowments that constitute us social beings; and 
every man is possessed of that mysterious power by which 
he acts upon the inner life of his f ellowmen. 

This power, though wielded, for the most part, uncon- 
sciously, is oeaslessly operative. I doubt if any man ever 
has an half hour's interview with friend or stranger and 
at its close, finds himself in the same moral mood he was 
in when the interview began. I doubt if any one ever 
walks down the street, though no hand touches his and no 
word falls upon his ear by the way, who is not affected for 
good or for ill, by the personal influence: of those whom 
he meets. Before he has taken many steps, a smile has 
cheered, or a frown has depressed him; a courteous bow 
has pleased, or a haughty stare has angered him; a pace, 
bright with the radiance of holiness, bearing upon every 
feature the beautiful impress of meekness and charity, has 
blessed him as it passed; or a face bearing the stamp of 
bad passions and haggard with remorse, has left its image 
to haunt and trouble him. 

Besides such effects of personal influence, which, as a 
rule are transient, there are others that abide. Every man 
exerts an influence that enters as a permanent factor into 
the formation of the character of his fellowmen. Jesus 
recognizes no exceptions, and there are none. "Every 
good tree bringeth forth good fruit, but a corrupt tree 
bringeth forth evil fruit." It is frequently said of cer- 
tain men that they have no force of character, and are 
without influence: but this is not true of any man living. 
There are those, I know, who seem to have no will power, 
no energy, no enthusiasm, to be altogether inert, mere ani- 



so 



PERSONAL INFLUENCE. 



mate lumps of clay, fashioned in the form of men. It is 
of such as these that it is said, they have no influence. But 
there is what is called the vis inertia, — the power of the 
powerless, — a power that must be reckoned with, not only 
in the realm of matter, but in that of spirit also. The 
negative characters among men; those who enterprise 
nothing, who are helpers in nothing, who, seemingly con- 
tribute nothing to the spiritual forces at work in the 
world, are possessed of this power, — a power that progress- 
ive men exhaust their energies in the effort to overcome, 
and that steadily resists and retards the progress of the 
race. 

Every man, whether by an inspiration that moves other 
men to seek higher and better things; or by an inertness 
that depresses and disheartens them; whether by an exam- 
ple that makes holiness attractive to them, or that seduces 
them into sin, is daily affecting the character of those 
with whom he associates. From every changing expres- 
sion of his face; from every word he speaks, from every 
act of his life, the subtle power of his influence delivers 
itself upon the souls around him. He is making an 
impression here, suggesting a thought there, weakening or 
strengthening a principle yonder, inspiring love in this one 
or hate in that one, living himself into the lives, writing 
his history upon the minds and breathing his spirit into 
the hearts of his fellowmen. 

This influence of man upon man invests little things 
with tremendous force and from what is insignificant in 
itself, brings forth issues of transcendant importance. 
The tone in which a commonplace sentence is uttered, 
sometimes strikes in human hearts "the first chord of a 



PERSONAL INFLUENCE. 



81 



faint, yet clear undersong of existence, which, once begun, 
goes on unceasingly and makes itself heard above the 
grave or gladsome variations played by the touch of cir- 
cumstance through all the following years. A letter is 
carelessly opened, a chance word drops on the ear, a 
strange face is seen for an instant, and, though the days 
go on, go on with their old monotony, there is a subtle, 
internal change that changes all things; and though the 
landscape is still the same it is shrouded in a gloom or 
flooded with a light that never was on sea or shore." 

Not one of you is what he would have been had he not 
seen at some crisis in his history a smile upon a certain 
face or a frown; had he not heard a sentence that certain 
lips uttered; had he not witnessed an act that certain 
hands performed. You can recall words that have not 
ceased to affect you since you first heard them; a glance 
or gesture that to some extent has influenced the whole 
course of your after life. Those words, spoken thought- 
lessly it may be, spoken by lips long since gone silent in 
death, are echoing in your hearts to-day, and will echo 
there forever. That glance, that gesture, expressing as in 
a flash, pleasure or displeasure, censure or approval, has 
become a contolling force in the development of your 
character. There are those of you who have fallen under 
bondage to evil habits that would never have enslaved you 
but for the example of certain persons whom you can 
name. There are those of you who are alive unto G-od 
who can trace the beginning of spiritual life in your souls 
to the influence of some humble Christian who perhaps 
went down into the grave doubting much whether he had 
done any good in the world. 



82 



PERSONAL INFLUENCE. 



You have not only felt the power of the personal influ- 
ence of others upon your character, but you have wielded 
a like power over them. You may think that what you 
say and do can have no deep or lasting effect upon your 
fellow men; but so certainly are you affecting them and 
so permanently that every step of your journey through 
time is marked by the abiding impressions you have left 
upon their minds and hearts. The moral power of your 
character is doing good or doing harm every day. It is 
not possible for you to divest yourself of that mysterious 
force which is called personal influence; and it would be 
difficult for you to estimate how awful or how glorious 
may be its issues. A single word or deed of yours may 
make or mar the life of a fellow-man; and through him 
the lives of many besides. You cannot tell how far-reach- 
reaching or how lasting shall be the effect of any sentence 
you speak or any act you perform. The sentence once 
spoken, the deed once done, starts a current of influence 
that you can never arrest. It may move in a direction 
you deprecate and towards results the thought of which 
fills' you with dismay, but you cannot turn it from its 
course and cannot counterwork or materially modify 
its effects. Once set in motion it is beyond your control. 

These facts imply a vastness and sacredness of responsi- 
bility attaching to human life, the faintest conception of 
which is enough to infuse a spirit of seriousness into the 
heart of levity itself. And yet these are by no means all 
the facts in the case. What your character and conduct 
are is something that concerns not only your friends and 
associates, but the whole generation of men now living 
and all the generations to come. You cannot, by trans- 



PEESONAL INFLUENCE. 83 



gressing divine law you harm your own soul in the secrecy 
of your closet at midnight, without thereby committing a 
sin against every man and woman and child on the earth 
and against the millions yet unborn. The solidarity of the 
human race is a momentous fact. The race is one. No 
man is a mere unit of personality, standing alone, isolated 
from his kind, able to live unto himself. All men are 
members one of 'another. Whatever ennobles one blesses 
§11: whatever degrades one injures all. The particles of 
matter that compose the earth are so related to each other 
that a forcei that moves one grain of sand affects every 
atom of this immense globe. A little boy, shooting an ar- 
row from his bow, thereby changes the centre of gravity 
of the world. The vibrations of the air, caused by the 
gentle breathing of a sleeping infant, gives an altered 
movement to the whole body of the earth's atmosphere 
And the laws of matter to which these results are tracea- 
ble have their correspondent laws in the spirit world. Men 
are so related to each other that every movement of passion 
and act of the will in each individual soul starts a wave 
of moral influence that rolls on in ever widening circles 
across the sea of human life. No work of man terminates 
upon himself, or spends its force in any local or present 
results. The effects of personal influence are not limited 
by either time or space. 

There is a vital, organic connection between the gener- 
ations of men; and no generation can altogether refuse 
that heritage of truths and falsities, of virtues and vices, 
transmitted to it by the one that precedes it. The cur- 
rent of the thoughts and loves, the motives and passions of 
each generation flows into the broad river of the life of 



84 



PEKSONAL INFLUENCE. 



the next, mingles with and modifies it. In a very import- 
ant sense the life of this generation is the complex result 
of the lives of all the human beings that have lived since 
the morning of creation. Manners and customs, habits of 
thought and action, sentiments and principles are carried 
over from age to age, modified it is true by the new per- 
sonality and new vital force that each soul brings along 
with it into the world ; but at the same time encompassing 
that soul as an atmosphere, penetrating it like leaven and 
conditioning the development of its faculties and the 
forth^putting of its energies. Each generation falls heir 
to the moral estate of the one that goes before it ; and 
every individual of the race contributes the whole vol- 
ume of his spiritual vitality to the great stream of human 
life that flows on down through the ages. 

Every blade of grass and every tree that ever grew is 
growing now in the trees and grasses that shade and car- 
pet the earth; and every human being that ever lived in 
the world is a living force in the present age. Of the first 
man that died it was written four thousand years after his 
death, "he being dead yet speaketh." and all the dead live 
and speak and act in the men and women and children of 
to-day. The drunkards who long since turned to dust are 
still reeling through our streets in the persons of their 
drunken descendants. The saints who ages ago died in 
the faith are with us this Sabbath morning in the saintly 
character and life of their spiritual children. 

The world is the better now for every good man and 
holy woman who ever blessed it by illustrating the purity 
and power of true religion. Their names may be written on 
no historic page; they may live in no one's memory, but 



PERSONAL INFLUENCE. 



85 



they do live in the ever bettering life of the race. The' 
closing words of MMdlemareh are true, "the growing good 
of the world is partly due to unhistoric acts; and that 
things are not so ill with you and me as they might have 
been is half owing to the number who have lived faithfully 
a hidden life and rest in unvisited graves." It has been 
said that "the teacher's great reward is this, to be treas- 
ured up, not in one soul, but in many souls; to live, not 
his own life alone, but hundreds of other lives, perhaps 
wiser, purer, happier than his own ; to be woven in with 
the warp and woof of boyhood's strong web, and to gleam 
and flash in the finer, subtler, texture of girlhood." This 
is the great reward not of the teacher only but of every 
man and woman who lives a pure and noble life beneath 
the sun. So much of true spiritual worth as there is in 
anyone's character and conduct he contributes to the in- 
creasing spiritual riches of the race, and by that much 
dowers with good the generations that come after him. 

Alas ! it is equally true that the falsities, the vices, the 
uncleannesses of every bad man abide on earth to curse his 
fellow men when he himelf has gone to the grave. The 
evil passions and wicked works of sinners are not buried 
with them. The world is the worse to-day for every un- 
holy man and godless woman who ever contaminated its 
life by the foulness of their iniquities. If personal influ- 
ence confers upon the holy an impersonal immortality of 
welldoing on the earth it dooms the unholy to an imper- 
sonal immortality of wrong-doing. 

The streamlet of your influence daily empties itself into 
the mighty current of thought and feeling that shall flow 
from the heart of this generation into that of the next, and 



86 



PERSONAL INFLUENCE. 



shall affect the life of the world till the end of time. In 
a hundred years your names shall have perished from the 
memory of living men, but when a hundred thousand years 
have gone by you shall still live and speak and act in those 
who come after you. Your influence, abiding on earth, 
shall carry forward through all future ages the work in 
which your energies are now invested. Death, instead of 
swallowing up the stream of your life, shall add depth to 
its channel and breadth to its volume and force to its cur- 
rent, and when Tennyson's babbling brook that so merrily 
chatters of its own immortality has ceased to flow this 
stream of your life shall "go on forever and ever." 

In view of these facts the question, "how far a man is 
to be held responsible for the unforseen consequences of 
his deeds," is one before the possibly true answer to which 
a thoughtful man cannot but stand appalled. The divine 
answer to this question is found in the truth that each 
man's character gives tone to whatever influence he exerts; 
the spirit that rules in his heart, whether pure or impure, 
whether christly or satanic pervades his influence and de- 
termines the nature of its effects. "Every good tree bring- 
eth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil 
fruit," 

The moral quality of both my influence and its results is 
necessarily sequent upon what I am. It is not required 
of me that I shall keep track of the influence that goes 
forth from my character and, by a constant supervision, 
guide it to good issues. God has given me one personality 
to perfect in righteousness and has unified my whole duty 
on earth in the achievements of Christlikeness of charac- 
ter for my own spiritual manhood. My life work centers 



PERSONAL INFLUENCE. 



87 



here. From this center my personal influence emanates, 
and by the spiritual quality of this center all the results of 
my influence for which I am held responsible are deter- 
mined. If I am holy in character, then my influence can- 
not but be a power always making for the refinement and 
ennoblement of the race ; and the whole strength of it shall 
forever go towards the upbuilding of the kingdom of Grod 
among men. If I am the servant of sin, then the stream 
of my influence, flowing from an unholy character, cannot 
but poison whatever heart it touches and infect with evil 
every life-current with which it mingles. 

In political and national conflicts the good and bad are 
found fighting side by side. Whatever a man's character 
he can, as he may choose, give the weight of his influence 
to either party in such conflicts; but, in that war always 
waging in our world between good and evil, it is personal 
character that assigns each man his place in the battle; and 
the only power he wields in this war is that moral power 
which inheres in character and which becomes dynamic 
through manifestations of character in the life. 

Your influence is not something separable from what 
you are, and which you can direct to this or that end as 
you may please. However far out into society and how- 
ever far down into the future ages your influence may . 
extend it shall be a power for good or for evil in the 
world's history, according as you are saintly or sinful in 
the spirit of your mind. The quality of the stream is 
derived from that of the fountain whence it flows; and 
the nature of the fruit from that of the tree that produces 
it. 



PERSONAL INFLUENCE. 



"Every good tree bringeth forth good fruit." No man 
of God lives in vain. The Christian's personal piety does 
not exhaust its virtue in making him meet to be a partaker 
of the inheritance of the saints. The light of pure relig- 
ion, shining out in his life, lights up the way to glory and 
to God for the feet of those who else would be doomed to 
grope their way through darkness down to death. His 
holy influence confirms the righteous in their righteous- 
ness and leads the disobedient to the wisdom of the just. 
It is a source of spiritual good to all with whom he asso- 
ciates; and, through those whom it first blesses', it passes 
out beyond the neighborhood and on beyond the age in 
which the good man lives, and continues its ministry of 
blessing to the world long after he has gone to his heavenly 
home and his name has been f orgotten on the earth. 

This is true, not only of the men who are extraordinarily 
gifted and influential, but of all who love God and keep 
His commandments. "Every good tree bringeth forth good 
fruit." I know, my brethren, how, while longing to be 
largely useful, your imitations as to ability and opoprtun- 
ity, discourage and depress you ; how you are tempted to 
think that your efforts to do good are a sowing of seed from 
which no harvests worth the reaping can ever be garnered ; 
but, by the changeless ordinance of the Most High, every 
tree of righteousness planted in the garden of God bringeth 
forth good fruit. While you love and serve the Lord, in 
ways that you know not, and in the experience of men over 
whom you never dreamed that you had any influence at all, 
the moral power of your Christian character is steadily 
working fo the glory of God in the salvation of souls. Be 



PERSONAL INFLUENCE. 



89 



of good courage, for the day shall come, if not on this side 
of the river of death yet assuredly beyond, when your 
hearts shall be thrilled with rapture unspeakable, as you 
hear more than one among the redeemed say, "you led us 
to Christ, your influence won us to righteousness, and we 
owe it to your patient continuance in well-doing that we 
are nusnbered among the saints of Grod." "Every good 
tree bringeth forth good fruit/' therefore, brethren, 
"make the tree good." 

"But a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit." A great 
part of the wickedness of men is social wickedness, by 
every indulgence in which, they confirm each other in sin ; 
and even their secret sins, — the sins they hide most care- 
fully from others, — are contagious. The virus of them, 
infecting character, infects personal influence, and so 
passes from heart to heart, from generation to generation. 
The sinfulness of every sinner adds somewhat to that tide 
of iniquity that pours its foul waters through the channels 
of human society. Unspeakably base in character the 
sinner may be, so vile and so vicious that one would think 
that his loathsome life would rob sin of all attractiveness, 
yet he is the center and source of evil influences that curse 
the world as long as he lives and after he is dead. Refined 
in sentiment the sinner may be, scholarly in attainments, 
polished in manners, but the poison of his evil principles, 
diffused throughout his culture and refinements, is because 
of these, only the more certainly communicated to the 
minds and hearts of others. "A corrupt tree," on account 
of the corruptness of its nature, necessarily "bringeth 
forth evil fruit." 
(6) 



90 



PERSONAL INFLUENCE. 



The ungodly father works the destruction of his own 
child. He may sincerely deprecate such a result of his 
evil course and earnestly warn his son against following in 
his steps; but bad example is stronger than good precept; 
and, in ruining his own soul, the wicked father ruins the 
soul of his son. Within a few feet of a road I frequently 
traveled years ago grew a large pine that towered far above 
the surrounding forest. Close to its side grew a smaller 
pine that sprang doubtless from a seed of the larger one. 
I rarely passed that way without observing these two trees 
whose roots were intertwined in the soil and whose bodies 
almost touched as they grew. On one occasion, I saw from 
a long way off that the top of the larger tree was seared and 
dead. As I drew nearer I saw that its trunk was shattered 
by lightning; that the smaller tree also was shivered in 
pieces, and that both were dead, dead to the very roots. 
The lightning had struck the larger tree, had leaped from 
its side to the top of the smaller one and had blasted it 
forever. Alas! how many facts, corresponding to these, 
facts sad beyond utterance, have been seen in the homes 
of men. The father, indifferent to manifestations of di- 
vine love and defiant of divine authority, hardens his heart 
in sin until his day of grace is passed; the cloud of right- 
eous wrath gathers over his head, the thunderbolt of right- 
eous retribution falls upon him, and smitten by the judg- 
ment he has provoked, his soul perishes in the shades of 
eternal death. But he does not perish alone. His son, 
growing up at his side, imbibes his spirit, imitates his 
example, walks in his evil ways', and, sharing his guilt, 
shares his destruction. The wicked father multiplies his 
image in his children, his sin also and his damnation. 



PEBSONAL INFLUENCE. 



91 



But, if the influence of a godless father is corrupting to 
the character and fatal to the souls of his offspring how 
much more is that of a godless mother. The loving, rev- 
erent, admiration of children for their mother makes sin- 
fulness in her infectious and ruinous an appalling cer- 
tainty. Children cannot think otherwise than that their 
mother is the perfection of whatever is beautiful in charac- 
ter and admirable in life, and, if her character is unholy 
and her life worldly and sinful, she draws her children by 
all the strength of their love for her, as with cart ropes, 
down to hell. The corrupt tree bringeth forth fruit unto 
spiritual and eternal death in every home where it grows. 

Wherever rooted and whatever its kind, "a corrupt tree 
bringeth forth evil fruit." The skeptic, incapable of ap- 
preciating the sacredness of the interests involved, with an 
unpardonable indifference to the results, scatters his doubts 
as he goes, the simple minded and ignorant gather and 
cherish them as truths, believe a lie and are damned. The 
moderate dram drinker tempts his weaker neighbor to an 
indulgence of appetite that ends in his destruction here and 
hereafter. The backslider barters his birth-right as a 
child of God for worldly gain or pleasure, others infer that 
religion is of little worth and perish in their sins. The 
theatre-going, card-playing, dancing, tippling member of 
the church, presents in his life a false view of piety which 
inspires the beholder with a fatal contempt for piety itself. 
The cultivated girl, strangely fascinated by the glitter and 
tinsel of fashionable life, sinking down gradually from the 
high plane of a pure Christian girlhood to the low level of 
a society woman, living in pleasure and dead while she 
liveth — dead to the beauty and blessedness of a holy life, — 



92 



PERSONAL INFLUENCE. 



converts the charms of attractive womanhood, given her to 
draw the world heavenward, into a fatal power that lures 
her admirers into the snares of that friendship with the 
world which is enmity against God. Yielding her person 
to the immodest embraces of the voluptuous waltz, she aids 
her society sisters in undermining that chivalric reverence 
of young manhood for true womanhood that is the basis 
of all that is noblest and best in manhood and womanhood 
both. She presses the wine-cup to the lips of those who, 
tasting what is so temptingly offered, are enslaved by a 
demon that drags them down through the unspeakable 
degradations of a drunkard's life into the indescribable hor- 
rors of a drunkard's death. She lends her influence to the 
fostering of the gaining passion, and, by her progressive 
euchre parties, with their punch-bowl attachments, smooths 
the way of young men to the gambler's den where more 
than money, where integrity and honor and manhood and 
eternal life are staked and lost. 

Living, the sinner destroys much good, and, dying, 
leaves behind him an influence which shall forever make 
for unrighteousness, and which, while he is reserved in 
darkness against the judgment of the last day, shall cease- 
lessly work out for him an ever deepening experience of 
remorse and shame and sorrow. It behooves every impeni- 
tent sinner to look full in the face the inevitable issues of 
his unholy influence. Even if nothing beyond his personal 
destiny were involved it would still be dreadful beyond ex- 
pression for him to commit his soul to the fortunes of unbe- 
lief and sin. But vastly more than his own destiny is invol- 
ved in the character he develops and the life he lives here 
below. There are those over whom he exercises an influence 



PEESONAL INFLUENCE. 



93 



stronger and more controling than lie is aware of and who 
are drawn by his example down the broad way that leads 
to the bottomless pit. The dooming of his own soul to "the 
abodes of eternal death, there to drink the galling bitter- 
ness of heir' is something too awful to contemplate, but 
there is something even worse before him in those regio is 
of despair. The blackness of outer darkness shall deepen 
around him there, and the fires of remorse shall kindle into 
fiercer flames, when to the accusing voice of his evil con- 
science, are added the fury of the accusations and the bitter 
curses of those who loved him once, but whom he has 
caused to perish, and who will hate him forever. 

There is no possibile way to rid yourselves of the influ- 
ence you wield over your fellow men, and you must, there- 
fore, be a blessing or a curse to them while you live and 
when you are dead. If the life-force that is in you be 
wielded by the might of evil, it shall leave its ineradicable 
mark upon the race through all its generation; and, when 
its appalling issues are traced back to you along lines of 
impurity and impenitence and remediless ruin of souls, 
unspeakable woe and the bitterness of an eternal despair 
shall be the portion of your cup. If on the other hand, 
the life-force that is in you be wielded by the spirit of holi- 
ness, then the priceless worth of all that is true and beauti- 
ful and good in your character you shall contribute towards 
the enrichment of the world. However large or narrow 
the sphere, however loftly or low the place you occupy 
among men, if the strength of truth and the sweetness of 
charity and the beauty of holiness abide in your hearts, 
there shall never come a time when the world shall not be 
the better and happier for your having lived in it. The 



94 



PERSONAL INFLUENCE. 



light of your life, as compared with that of others, may be 
but as the glimmering of a taper compared with the full 
blaze of the noonday sun, but if it be the white light of 
pure affections and holy pinciples, its radiance shall glad- 
den the heart and home of earth's latest inhabitant. Your 
life-battles may all be fought in silence and solitude, and 
neither poet nor orator may celebrate the praises of your 
bloodless victories, but if, with brave hearts, battling 
against selfishness and sin, you maintain the right, even 
in the obscurest places, every soldier of the right, through 
all the coming ages, shall be the stronger and more valiant 
and more grandly victorious because you fought the good 
fight bef ore him. 



SERMON VII. 

PERSONAL ACCOUNTABILITY AND DIVINE RETRIBUTIONS. 

"The soul that slnneth, dt shall die. The son shall not hear 
the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father (bear the ini- 
quity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon 
him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him." E'ze- 
kiel xviii-20. 

There are few subjects upon which it is more important 
that we have clear and correct views than the nature of our 
accountability to God and the nature and certainty of 
divine retributions. Both of these subjects are covered 
by the text, and I shall treat them under two general 
propositions: 1. Every man is immediately, person- 
ally and solely accountable to God for his own char- 
acter and conduct, whatever may be the example that other 
men set him, or the influence they wield over him. 2. The 
righteousness of the righteous, sealed to him as his everlast- 
ing heritage shall be the substance of the righteous man's 
reward; and the wickedness of the wicked, confirmed to 
him at his eternal portion, shall be the substance of the 
wicked man's punishment. 

1. In saying that every man is immediately and solely 
accountable to God for his own character and conduct, I 
mean to affirm that his accountability inheres in his per- 
sonal relation to his Maker, that it does not originate in his 
social or domestic relations, and is not modified by domestic 
or social influences; that in the matter of accountability for 
what he is and what he does every man is related to God 
just as if he were the only human being in the world; just 



96 



PERSONAL ACCOUNTABILITY. 



as if he stood alone at the foot of Mount Sinai, and God, 
out of the midst of the fire had called to him by name and 
addrssed to him personally every precept of divine law; 
just as if for him alone Christ had died upon the cross. 
If I knew any stronger language in which to put the propo- 
sition, I would use that. 

The obligation that is upon every man to love God and 
keep His commandments is an obligation that rests directly 
upon him; and, in case this obligation is violated, under 
whatever circumstances or influences, the guilt of the vio- 
lation is his own personal, undivided guilt. All other 
men may be righteous or they may be wicked ; they may set 
him a good example or a bad example, but, in the one case, 
his obligation to love and obey God is not strengthened 
and, in the other it is not weakened. Xeither duty or ac- 
countability nor guilt can be made a common stock among 
men. Each is personal property and inalienable. No man 
can transfer to other men any part of the debt of obedience 
he owes to God, or any part of the burden of the guilt he 
incurs by failing to pay this debt. His accountability for 
his character and conduct is neither increased nor dimin- 
ished by anything that other men are, or by any influence 
they may exert. 

If this is a correct view of the subject, there is urgent 
need that it be pressed home upon the thought and con- 
science of men. There is an almost universal disposition 
among us to merge our personal responsibility into that of 
other men, and to charge the guilt of our iniquities to their 
account instead of our own. We rarely meet a man who 
is so thoroughly possessed by the truth of his direct and 
undivided responsibility for his own character and con- 



PERSONAL ACCOUNTABILITY. 



97 



duct that he takes upon his conscience the whole 
burden of the guilt of his sins. Nearly all men go outside 
of themselves to find the responsible origin of their iniqui- 
ties. Their parents have eaten sour grapes, and therefore 
their teeth are set on edge: evil influences have led them 
astray: circumstances beyond their control have made 
them wicked: the inconsistencies of members of the 
Church and ministers of the Gospel have undermined 
their faith and driven them away from God. All classes 
of sinners are ready with an excuse for their sins, or with 
a charge by which they seek to fasten the guilt of them 
upon some one other than themselves. Adam charges his 
sin to the woman: the woman charges her sin to the ser- 
pent: the slothful servant charges his sin to the austerity 
of his master: and nearly all men follow these pernicious 
examples. Ignoring the fact of their immediate and per- 
sonal accountability to God, they seem to feel altogether 
free from the guilt of the sin they have committed if some 
one else has in any wise contributed towards it. But this 
is a vain conceit. Man's accountability to God for his 
own character and conduct is a personal, indivisible ac- 
countability; and to whatever refuge of lies he may flee to 
escape the burden of his guilt, the wickedness of every 
wicked man shall be upon him, and not upon another. 

The evil and inveterate habit of ignoring this truth is 
one of the most serious difficulties in the way of the sal- 
vation of sinners. Until a man realizes that his obliga- 
tion to obey God rests directly upon his own conscience; 
that whatever other men may be or may do, this obligation 
is unchangeably binding upon him; that therefore the 
guilt of every sin he commits, under it matters not what 



98 



PEKSONAL ACCOUNTABILITY. 



influences, is his own personal guilt, that he cannot make 
of circumstances or of the bad example of his associates 
a scape-goat to bear off his guilt from his conscience, — 
until he feels deep down in his heart that his sin is his 
sin and his guilt is his guilt, it is impossible for him to 
truly and heartily repent. But once he enters fully into 
the consciousness of his own immediate accountability to 
God, and takes the heavy burden of his guilt upon his own 
heart, genuine repentance is almost sure to follow. xTo 
man can see clearly the exceeding sinfulness of sin, and 
realize that for every transgression he has committed, he 
is wholly responsible, and feel the weight of the guilt of 
his iniquities pressing upon his conscience without being 
humbled into the dust and seeking divine mercy. I de- 
sire, therefore, to hold your minds to the truth of your 
immediate and personal accountability to God for whatever 
you are and whatever you do until this truth is rooted in 
your convictions and demands instant and earnest consid- 
eration. 

The whole chapter from which the text is taken is de- 
voted to this subject; but, for the establishment of the 
proposition I am discussing, there is no need that I call 
your attention to more than two verses. The first of these 
reads thus, "Behold all souls are mine saith the Lord, as the 
soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine." 
Making this claim, which no one will dispute, God de- 
clares as a resultant principle of the divine administration 
that "the soul that sinneth, it shall die," that, "the father 
shall not bear the iniquity of the son, neither shall be son 
bear the iniquity of the father." We are here taught 
that even the relation of the father to his child cannot in- 



PEESONAL ACCOUNTABILITY. 



99 



terpose between the child and God so as to weaken the obli- 
gation binding him to obey divine law. The father may 
be holy and the son wicked: if so the son shall bear his 
own iniquity and the righteousness of the father shall be 
upon him. The father may be wicked and the son right- 
eous: if so, the son shall not bear the father's iniquity, but 
his righteousness shall be upon him, and the father shall 
bear his own iniquity. They may both be wicked, but. 
the wickedness of neither excuses that of the other. The 
soul of each belongs to God. His title to the love and obedi- 
ence of the one is precisely the same as His title to the love 
and obedience of the other. In the case of each this title is 
original and complete and is not affected as to either by 
the righteousness or wickedness of the other. 

Bat do not misinterpret these teachings. They do not 
imply the removal of parental example' and influence 
from the sphere of accountability. The father is under 
most sacred obligation to God to set his son a good example 
and to diligently train him in right principles. He is 
responsible for the influence he wields over his child and 
must answer for it in the last day. If he lead his child 
into sin, if, by the power of filial love, he draw that child 
down to destruction, the awful guilt of prostituting 
parental influence to the ruin and damnation of his own 
child shall be upon him, and he shall bear the intolerable 
load of this guilt forever. 

But the corrupting influence of a wicked father is not 
irresistible; his bad character does not necessarily deter- 
mine that of his son. Some of the saintliest men that 
ever lived had godless fathers. It is evident, therefore, 
that the son's accountability to God is not merged into 



100 



PERSONAL ACCOUNTABILITY. 



that of his father. However strong the father's influ- 
ence, and however constantly it may antagonize righteous- 
ness, the son can repent of his sins, can give his heart to 
God, can be holy. No power on earth or in hell can 
bind him in slavery against his will: and without respect 
to what his father may be or do, God requires him to turn 
from all evil, work righteousness and follow Christ. If 
he disobey this heavenly calling, though it be under the 
influence of a father's example, he is guilty of wilful 
rebellion against God and wilful rejection of divine 
mercy. In the exercise of his personal freedom he resists 
the Holy Ghost, and the guilt of voluntary impenitence 
and voluntary continuance in sin is upon him. This is 
his guilt and he shall bear it, shall bear it all, just as if no 
parental influence had contributed towards it. The wick- 
edness of the father in setting his son a bad example is 
distinct from the wickedness of the son in following that 
example, and shall be borne by the father: and the son's 
wickedness in disobeying God that he may follow the 
footsteps of a sinful father is distinct from the wicked- 
ness of the father in leading him astray, and shall be 
borne by the son. "All souls are mine, saith the Lord, 
as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is 
mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die." 

I have dwelt upon this subject as it is involved in the 
relation of parent and child, because these relations more 
than any others affect the formation of character and be- 
cause it must be apparent to all that, if the father cannot 
be held responsible for his child's character to such an ex- 
tent as to relieve the child of responsbiility, then no one 
else can. If the son cannot merge his responsibility to 



PERSONAL ACCOUNTABILITY. 



101 



God into that of his father; if, independently of all the 
strength of a fathers' infhienoe npon him, his obligation 
to obey God remains intact, then it is inoontestibly true, 
that every man is immediately, personally and solely ac- 
countable to God for his own character and his own con- 
duct. 

I beseech you to look this truth squarely in the face. 
Your father and mother may be the saintliest people on 
earth ; but their saintliness cannot save your soul. If you 
are wicked, you shall perish in your sins, though they 
suine as the stars forevermore. On the other hand, your 
father and mother may live as if there were no God; all 
the members of the church and ministers of the gospel 
with whom you are acquainted may be hypocrites, but 
this cannot excuse you for the commission of one sin, 
much less can it justify you in life-long transgression of 
divine law. God passes by ministers of religion, and 
passes by members of the church, and passes by your 
father and mother: He looks you in the face; He speaks 
to your soul; He lays His righteous demands directly upon 
your conscience; and, as if there were not another being 
in the world, He says to each one of you, "Son give me 
thy heart; daughter be thou holy," and this binds the ob- 
ligation to love Him and keep His commandments directly 
upon your conscience. He offers pardon and purity, holi- 
ness and heaven to each one of you; and so leaves you 
without the shadow of an excuse for living in sin one mo- 
ment, even though all other men be thoroughly corrupt 
in principle and practice. 

There is one other passage in this chapter, bearing di- 
rectly upon the question of personal accountability to 



102 



PERSONAL ACCOUNTABILITY. 



which I ask your attention: "I will judge you every one 
according to his ways, saith the Lord God." Here we are 
taught that the judgment of the last day shall proceed 
upon the basis of each man's accountability for what he 
is and what he does. Many different influences may affect 
the development of your character; it may take much of 
its tone from your surroundings; it may be largely fash- 
ioned by the example of those with whom you associate; 
but your accountability remains untouched, because no 
surroundings, no influences, no example deprives you of 
your free moral agency. Accountability inheres in the 
self determining power of the human will, — a power con- 
sciously possessed by every one of you, and of which no 
combination of men or devils can deprive you. There is 
no force, human or satanic, that can destroy your per- 
sonal freedom. Bad example can never harm you unless 
you choose to follow it. Evil influences can never corrupt 
you unless you choose to yield to them. In the judgment 
therefore, when you stand before the bar of God, no in- 
quiry will be made into the example or influence of other 
men. 

"I will judge you every one according to his ways, saith 
the Lord God." Each one of you shall be tried by the 
record he himself has made; snail stand before God in his 
separate personality to give account of himself, and not 
another. All the bonds of social and domestic relation- 
ship shall drop away from around you, and out of all 
earthly associations your individuality shall emerge; and 
in the loneliness of an absolute isolation from all your fel- 
low creatures you shall stand face to face with God to be 
judged according to your ways. 



PERSONAL ACCOUNTABILITY. 



103 



At the bar of jour own conscience 1 you may plead the 
bad example of parents', the inconsistencies of members of 
the church and ministers of the gospel in extenuation of 
your sinfull ife; but there shall be no inquisition into the 
conduct of others when you appear before the bar of God. 
The books shall be opened, the book of divine law, given 
to be the man of your counsel, and the book of memory 
in which shall be recorded every act of your life; and by 
the things written in these books you shall be justified or 
condemned. When the ungodly father is judged, then 
his bad example and evil influence shall be subjects of ju- 
dicial inquiry; and woe unto him in that day when the 
souls of his children, corrupted and ruined by his sinful 
life, shall cry from the bottomless pit for vengeance upon 
him. When the inconsistent member of the church is 
called into judgment, then all his inconsistencies and the 
evil results of them shall be exposed; and, woe unto him 
when he is judged according to his ways. When the un- 
faithful minister of the gospel is called into* judgment, 
then his unfaithfulness and its awful issues in the history 
of souls shall be fully revealed; and, if there be a deeper 
pit of infamy and misery in hell than any other, he shall 
be cast down from the judgment seat into that. But 
when you appear at the bar of divine justice, you shall be 
judged according to your ways, — as solely accountable for 
your own character and your own conduct. 

While your parents and members of the church and 
ministers of the gospel have a great responsibility upon 
them in their relations to you, and while unfaithfulness on 
their part shall involve them in remediless ruin, yet their 
sin does not take anything away from the guilt of your in- 



104 



PERSONAL ACCOUNTABILITY. 



iquity, nor does the responsibility that is npon them male 
you any the less accountable for what you are and what 
you do. Have you been carnal, selfish, unclean, unchari- 
table, are you still impenitent, unpardoned, unmoved? 
Then the guilt of all the sins of your past life is upon you. 
It is your personal guilt, and you cannot transfer any part 
of it to another. No one ever forced you to transgress 
divine law. No evil influence has ever been brought to 
bear upon you that was irresistible. You never committed 
a sin in your life that you did not choose to commit; and 
therefore! the burden of the guilt of all your sins is yours 
alone. Take this burden upon your conscience: it is 
yours; heavy with shame it is; weighted with condemna- 
tion; prophetic of woe, despair and death eternal; but it 
is yours. Take it upon your conscience; bring it to the 
mercy seat, to him who taketh away the sin of the world; 
here plead with him to save you from this intolerable load 
of sin; cry to him out of the depths of a true repentance 
until he hears and answers and seals pardon upon your 
heart. Through his infinite mercy you must find deliver- 
ance from the guilt of your transgressions, as you shall 
bear it on to the end of life, increasing at every step ; shall 
bear it on, through the portals of death, into the eternal 
world, and up to the judgment seat of God, where it shall 
be bound upon your conscience by the hand of retributive 
justice, and from whence it shall sink your lost soul into 
abysses of infamy and misery, that are shoreless, bottom- 
less and eternal. 

If the sinfulness of the least sinful among you is sealed 
to you as your everlasting portion and so becomes a part, 
of your consciousness forever, it shall be to you the source 



PEKSONAL ACCOUNTABILITY. 



105 



of endless shame and remorse. But this need not be, 
for our Father in heaven has found a ransom for jour 
souls; has sent his Son into the world to be your Saviour; 
to make propitiation for your sins and to save unto the 
uttermost all who come to Grod by him. "Behold the 
Lamb of Grod which taketh away the sins of the world." 
Believe upon Him with your hearts unto righteousness 
and even now your guilt shall be taken away and the de^ 
filement of your sins shall be cleansed. Believe upon 
him, and grace shall be given you to make your life hence- 
forth a treasuring up of holy affections and principles 
against that day when the righteousness of the righteous 
shall be sealed to him as his portion and joy forever. 

II. While the primary purpose of the text is to enforce 
the truth, of each man's personal accountability to Grod, 
it embodies the further truth that, the righteousness of 
the righteous, sealed to Him as His eternal heritage, shall 
be the substance of the righteous man's reward; and that, 
the wickedness of the wicked, confirmed to him as his 
everlasting portion, shall be the substance of the wicked 
man's punishment. Not only does it declare that "the 
righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him/ 7 but 
that "tine righteousness of the righteous shall be upon 
him; " not only that the "wickedness of the wicked shall 
be upon him/' but that "the wickedness of the wicked 
shall be upon him." 

If the Holy Scriptures contained nothing more con- 
cerning the nature and issues of the divine law of retri- 
bution than is contained in the text we might infer that it 
was not intended to teach anything beyond the fact that 
righteousness insures to the righteous some sort of reward 
(7) 



106 



PERSONAL ACCOUNTABILITY. 



and that wickedness shall bring some sort of punishment 
upon the wicked. But ; interpreted in the light of other 
passages in the word of Gk>d, the text is seen to teach that 
the character men develop and the life they live in this 
world are to be the essential elements of their heaven or 
their hell in the world to come. 

We read in the book of Proverbs, "They would none of 
my counsel and despised all my reproof, therefore shall 
they eat of their own doings and be filled with their own 
devices." We read again, "The backslider in heart 
shall be filled with his own ways; but a good man shall 
be satisfied from himself." The prophet Isaiah is com- 
manded to say, "It shall be well with the righteous," 
Why? "For he shall eat of the fruit of his doings"; but 
"it shall be ill with the wicked." Why ? "For the re- 
ward of his hands shall be given him." It is written, "We 
must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that 
every man may receive," what? "the things done in his 
body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good 
or bad." And St. Paul, summing up the teaching of 
Scripture on this subject in one comprehensive proposi- 
tion, writes, "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also 
reap. He that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap 
corruption; but he that soweth to the spirit shall of the 
spirit reap life everlasting." 

The principle of divine retribution is that same princi- 
ple which pervades all nature and which gives to man as 
his harvest the very thing he sows as seed. If he sows 
wheat, his harvest is wheat, not something else. If ho 
sows the seeds of nettles, his harvest is nettles. The earth 
never makes a mistake. That which the husbandman 



PEESONAL ACCOUNTABILITY. 



107 



pasts into her fertile soil as seed, that and not another 
thing, she brings forth for his reaping. Like produces 
like. This law rules throughout the universe; and there- 
fore in spiritual as in natural husbandry, "whatsoever a 
man soweth, that shall he also reap." This law is opera- 
tive in the moral history of men now. We have seen its 
issues in the lives of others and experienced them in our 
own. It is true that it does not, and for many reasons, 
cannot, have its full effect while probation lasts. The 
harvest of evil in the hearts of the wicked is not what it 
would be if the seeds of vice he sows were left to germin- 
ate and grow and bear their evil fruit unhindered by the 
restraining influences of divine grace. The seeds of piety 
and love that are sown by the righteous do not produce in 
them that abundant harvest of holiness and blessedness 
they would if evil influences did not retard their growth 
and cause them to cast their fruit. 

Nevertheless, it is true here on earth, that the wicked- 
ness of the wicked, waxing worse and worse, intensifying 
in malignity, more and more befouling the wicked man's 
heart and debasing his soul, is his worst punishment. Ev- 
ery evil passion he indulges reacts upon him and makes 
him more passionate. Every gratification of lust strength- 
ens the fetters by which he is held in bondage to lust. 
The evil principles that are the germs in all acts of trans- 
gression, cultivated by every such act, spring up, grow, 
bear fruit; and the fruit they bear is the increase of them- 
selves, the multiplication of their kind. While this is not 
the world of retribution yet its experiences furnish ample 
illustration of the nature of the retributive processes that 
await the sinner in the world to come. The pride of the 



108 



PERSONAL ACCOUNTABILITY. 



haughty, while it is their sin, dooms them to an isolation 
from their fellow men, a loneliness and bitterness of 
spirit, which is the punishment of their pride. The cov- 
etousenss of the covetous, while it is their sin, is made 
insatiable by, its indulgence, and so becomes the increas- 
ing plague of their lives. The lusts of the licentious, 
while their sin, is at the same time their shame and mis- 
ery. We have all seen how drunkenness punishes the 
drunkard; how it crushes all sense of manliness in his 
soul; how it drags him down from one pit of degradation 
into a deeper still; how it kindles flames of torture in his 
brain and heart, and sends him at last a shrieking maniac 
out through the horrors of delirium tremens into the hor- 
rors of the drunkard's hell. Earthquakes do not swallow 
up the transgressor; thunderbolts do not fall upon him 
and crush him; lightnings do not scathe and blight him. 
An infinitely worse thing is his portion. The sin he loves, 
more and more enslaves, corrupts, degrades him; and by 
its present results prophesies the remediless ruin it shall 
work in his experience in the future. It is only on rare 
occasions and at long intervals, that the immediate agency 
of Grod is manifested in the execution of justice upon 
wicked men. This is spoken of in the Bible as his "strange 
work," strange in the sense of being infrequent. The 
rule is that the punishment of sin comes from the opera- 
tion of the laws of the sinner's own nature, — the very laws 
which insure to the righteous an ever increasing nobleness 
of character and blessedness of experience. In this world 
we see only the beginnings of the retributive process; but 
we see enough to make it sure that, when this process goes 
on in the wicked man's experience unhindered by the 



PERSONAL ACCOUNTABILITY. 



109 



strivings' of the Holy Spirit and the restraints of grace, 
the results shall be unspeakable degradation and wretch- 
edness. O what must be the horror and anguish of the 
impenitent sinner when the doom he has provoked comes 
upon him, and he goes forth into the field of retribution 
to reap throughout eternity and garner in his heart the 
accursed and ever ripening harvest of his evil doings ! 

On the other hand, it's evident here on earth, that vir- 
tue is its own exceeding great reward; that piety blesses 
the pious; that holiness puts a crown of rejoicing upon 
the brow of the holy; that loving God supremely, while 
man's supreme duty, is at the same time his supreme bles- 
sedness. All this is true in this state of probation where 
are so many things that tend to disturb the divine order 
concerning sin and its punishment, righteousness and its 
reward. When probation ends and we enter the spirit 
world every obstacle in the way of retributive processes 
shall disappear, and it shall be true in all the fulness of 
the meaning of the words that "the righteousness of the 
righteous shall be upon him and the wickedness of the 
wicked shall be upon him." 

The teachings of Scripture on this subject evidently 
mean that the sins men commit in this world, the vices' to 
which they are addicted, the evil lusts and passions they 
cherish, are somehow to be their tormentors in the world 
to come : and that the good deeds done by the saints here 
below, the virtues and graces that are the beauty and 
strength of their character on earth are to be the fountain 
of their blessedness in heaven. The injustices of the un- 
just man, returning through memory to the sphere of 
consciousness, shall scourge his guilty soul, as with whips 



110 



PE11SOXAL ACCOUNTABILITY. 



of scorpions; the filtliiness of sensualism shall be the in- 
famy and wretchedness of the unclean; and unholy lusts 
and passions, unsated and insatiable, shall avenge upon 
the sinner the crime of having yielded up his spiritual 
manhood to their unhallowed dominion. They who have 
chosen iniquity shall be filled with iniquity. They who 
have loved cursing shall be fed on curses. They who 
have been the willing servants of sin shall be its bond- 
slaves forever. In the day of judgment the tide of carnal 
lusts and Satanic passions, now pouring its unclean floods 
through all the channels of sinful human life shall be ar- 
rested, and its foul waters shall be turned back upon their 
sources in the hearts of the wicked, filling them with ini- 
quity and infamy and woe, the rightful portion and just 
retribution of the damned. 

And in that day, the purity of heart and holiness of 
character achieved by the righteous shall be confirmed to 
them as* their reward. Every good thought, every pure 
motive, every holy desire and principle they have cher- 
ished here below shall be to them an ever present and ever 
brightening blessing in their heavenly home. They have 
exalted religion in this world, and she shall promote them 
in the world to come. They have embraced her here, and 
she shall bring them to honor there. She shall give to 
their heads an ornament of grace, and a crown of glory 
shall she deliver to them. 

Every work of a man's hands enters into his character, 
— is incorporated, as to its principle, into his spiritual na- 
ture. Every uttered word, a fleeting sound, soou forgot- 
ten, abides with him, — become?, as to the truth or falsity, 
the good or evil spirit it embodies and expresses', a per- 



PERSONAL ACCOUNTABILITY. 



Ill 



manent element in the life of his soul. Not one act of 
piety or charity is ever wasted. Not one kind, loving 
word is ever lost. All such acts and words are living seed, 
the germ of which, in the doing and speaking, take root 
in the heart of the speaker and doer; and they all grow, 
flower and fruit in his experience and character; all yield 
bountiful harvests that are garnered in the holy and 
blessed life he shall live in heaven. 

The saints there "follow the Lamb whithersoever he 
goeth," and the spirit testifies that "their works do follow 
with them." From the oblivion into which failing mem- 
ory permitted them to fall; from the tombs of the forgot- 
ten past, their good works arise, come trooping around 
them like angels of God to pour benedictions upon them. 
The words of warning, of instruction, of encouragement 
and comfort which they spoke here wuth trembling lips 
and which they thought had died away into a fruitless 
silence, waking no echo in all the universe, are heard once 
more, set to sweetest music, and the sound of them in the 
hearts of those who uttered them is like angels harping 
upon their harps. "Their works' do follow with them," 
as they follow the Lamb, white robed messengers from 
time that crown eternity with joy. "The righteousness of 
the righteous shall be upon him," and shall fill his heart 
with blessedness forever. 

The seed-time of existence is passing rapidly away; the 
harvest time hastens on. Every day, every hour, every 
moment brings nearer that sealing of the righteousness of 
the righteous to him and of the wickedness of the wicked 
to him which shall be the substance of heaven in the expe- 
rience of the one and the substance of hell in that of the 



112 



PERSONAL ACCOUNTABILITY. 



other. The returnless' tide of time is . bearing you all 
towards eternity. Yon are ceaselessly moving towards the 
judgment seat of Christ; and you are carrying with you, 
in the elements of your experience and character that 
which shall justify or condemn, shall bless or curse you 
there and thenceforth forever. If you are yielding your- 
selves to the control of sinful desires and passions; if you 
are unholy in your loves and principles; godless in your 
words and works, you are bearing with you to the bar of 
divine justice, what shall scourge you with remorse, and 
robe you in shame, and cover you with confusion, and 
shroud you in the blackness of despair, and doom you to 
eternal death. If you are living the life of faith in the 
Son of God, walking with him in holy spiritual fellow- 
ship, cherishing in your hearts the virtues and graces, the 
holy affections and principles that constitute Christian 
character, you are bearing with you to the judgment seat, 
that which shall crown you with honor, and robe you in 
glory and pour a tide of blessedness through every chan- 
nel of your spiritual nature. 



SEKMON VIII. 



PUBLIC OPINION AND DIVINE LAW. 

'But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged 
of you, or of man's judgment: yea, I judge not mine own self. 

"For I know nothing by myself; yet I am not hereby justified; 
but He that judgeth me is the Lord." — I. Corinthians IV: 3-4. 

There is what the fathers of the Kepublic call, "a de- 
cent respect to the opinions of mankind." No one is ex- 
cusable in wantonly outraging the views of propriety and 
virtue that are cherished by his fellow men. Every right 
minded man, so far as he can conscientiously, will con- 
form to the manners and customs of the society in which 
he moves. But it not infrequently happens that public 
opinion arrays itself against the authority of God. It is 
not an uncommon thing for social laws to require what di- 
vine law prohibits, and to forbid what divine law posi- 
tively commands. The instances are not rare in which a 
man is compelled to defy public opinion or rebel against 
God; to sacrifice either his reputation or his charac- 
ter; and woe to him in whose experience this issue is 
joined if he has not the moral courage to say with St. Paul 
to the whole world, if need be, "It is a very small thing 
with me that I should be judged of you; he that judgeth 
me is the Lord." 

The subject covered by the text is the comparative va- 
lidity of the claim made by public opinion, on the one 
hand, and by divine law, on the other, to be recognized as 
the true standard of morals and rule of life; or, to state it 



114: 



PUBLIC OPINION AND DIVINE LAW. 



more accurately, the comparative value of an honorable 
reputation among men and a holy character in the sight 
of God. 

1. Public opinion creates reputation; but every man, 
under God, is the architect of his own character. His 
reputation is what his fellow men believe him to be; his 
character is what in the ruling affections and principles of 
his heart, he really is. The two are not, by any means, 
identical. On the contrary, they may be, and often are, 
essentially diverse. A man may possess the character of 
a St. John and yet have the reputation of a Judas Iscariot. 

Some sort of reputation every man has. Xo one can 
escape the scrutiny and judgment of society. Public 
opinion arraigns every man at its bar; tries him and pro- 
nounces its verdict upon him. It claims a jurisdiction co- 
extensive with the human race. It assumes an authority 
that dares to dispute the sovereignty of God. It wields 
a mysterious power that men who do not quail in the 
presence of death are afraid to resist. Legal enactments 
can get themselves practically recognized as the law of the 
land only by its permission. It is stronger than senates. 
It rules kings. The desire to be endorsed and approved 
by it, if not one of the instincts of human nature, yet 
manifests itself in childhood and very generally grows 
with our growth. This desire is not a weakness, much 
less is it vicious. The good will of our fellowmen is of 
real and very great value to us; and earnest, persevering 
effort to secure and maintain a. spotless reputation has 
much to justify and commend it. 

Success in business is largely dependent upon repu- 
tation. Whatever a man's character, if he has the reputa- 



PUBLIC OPINION AND DIVINE LAW. 115 

tion of an honest, capable man of business, lie is nevei 
forced to stand idle in the market place, but commands 
the best positions in his trade or profession. Whatever 
his character, if he has the reputation of an inefficient and 
untrustworthy man of business, every door to success is 
shut against him. Social happiness is wholly dependent 
upon reputation. There can be no social enjoyment for 
one who is held in contempt and ostracized by his fellow 
men. And the value of a good name is greatly enhanced 
by considerations that appeal, not to our self-love, but to 
what is higher and nobler. One's power to do good is 
measured by the kind of reputation he has. The best 
man on earth, if universally reputed a hypocrite, would 
be shorn of ail that saving influence over his fellow men 
with which a reputation for saintliness would clothe him. 
The social position and happiness of one's family are in- 
volved in his reputation. If public opinion puts him un- 
der ban, his wife and children suffer with him; and if pub- 
lic opinion exalts him, they share in the honors he re- 
ceives. Besides, all this where society is ruled by right 
principles, the love of reputation is a conservator of good 
morals. It puts a most effectual restraint upon the vio- 
lent passions of men and prevents the commission of many 
shameful crimes. 

A good name is greatly to be desired. It is more pre- 
cious than much fine gold, and whoever does not so esteem 
it is unfit to live in respectable society. He who is reck- 
lessly indifferent to the censure or approval of upright 
men merits nothing better than to be shut up in solitary 
confinement, or banished to the companionship of wild 
beasts. He who has lost interest in his reputation be- 



116 PUBLIC OPINION AXD DIVINE LAW. 

cause he has lost his self-respect is' of all men the most 
hopelessly lost. 

But while all this is unquestionably true, it is also true 
that a man cannot more fatally undermine his own char- 
acter, or more completely forfeit the favor of God, or 
make himself more thoroughly deserving of the contempt 
of mankind than by adopting public opinion as' his stand- 
ard of morals, the love of reputation as the ruling princi- 
ple of his conduct and a good name among men as the 
end of his life. 

This cannot but be manifest to all who consider the 
matter. Right principles are always right. Wrong prin- 
ciples are always wrong. The distinction between them 
is not conventional and temporary but essential and eter- 
nal. All excellencies of character are rooted in the ever- 
lasting, changeless principles of righteousness and all con- 
duct that is praiseworthy is the embodiment and express- 
ion of these principles. No standard of morals is relia- 
ble and no rule of life can be safely followed, that is not 
in perfect and unvarying harmony with the eternal law of 
right. But this cannot be affirmed of public opinion. It 
is subject to conflicting influences that make it unstable. 
It partakes' of the infirmities and limitations of human 
nature that make it fallible. The voice of the people is 
not the voice of God. It is oftener the voice of ignorance 
and prejudice; and not seldom the voice of satanic sel- 
fishness and brutish passions. 

Public opinion is an unsafe standard of morals and rule 
of life because it is' changeable, condemning at one time 
what it approves at another, and commanding at one time 
what it forbids at another. It once required every gentle- 



PUBLIC OPINION AND DIVINE LAW. 117 

man to offer strong drink to his guests, and counted him a 
fanatic or a niggard if he failed in this act of hospitality: 
now, if he does this very thing which it then insisted upon, 
it denounces him as a dangerous member of society. It 
once banished the immodest familiarities of the round 
dance to the lowest haunts of vice, where, if anywhere in 
the universe, they properly belong; now, with brazen ef- 
frontery, it exhibits these same immodesties in public 
halls and ladies' parlors. Public opinion is so variable 
that it is impossible to forecast from the principles' it 
avows and the rules it establishes in the present what po- 
sition it will hold in the future. In one generation it 
stones the prophets and in the next garnishes their sepul- 
chres'. In the eighteenth century it drives John Wesley 
from its churches, and in the nineteenth century it builds 
a monument to his memory in Westminster Abbey, the 
most sacred resting place of its saintly and glorious dead . 
To-day it spreads palm leaves before Jesus and hails' His 
entrance into Jerusalem with shouts of hosanna to Him 
that cometh in the name of the Lord; to-morrow it thrusts 
him out of the city, crying, "crucify him, crucify him." 
Its changes are so frequent and so radical that to conform 
to its demands is' to part with every principle that en- 
nobles character. 

Public opinion is an unsafe rule of life because it is not 
a well-informed and impartial judge of character or con- 
duct. It never has all the facts before it in regard to 
those upon whom it pronounces judgment. The motives, 
which alone give moral quality to a man's deeds, are 
beyond its ken; and it is therefore constantly liable to 
condemn what it ought to approve, and to praise what it 



118 



PUBLIC OPIXIOX AXD DIVIXE LAW. 



ought to censure. As to the nature of the principles in- 
volved in any given enterprise it is blinded by the glare 
of success, and equally so by the shadow of failure. As 
to the real merits of men it is subject to the same species 
of blindness from the same causes. Last week it filled 
all Europe with the sneers and hisses by which it greeted 
the luckless attempt of Louis Xapoleon, the adventurer, 
to seize the throne of France. Yesterday it grew hoarse 
shouting the praises of the same Louis Xapoleon, emperor 
of the French, and foremost statesman of his generation. 
To-day it pours contempt upon the defeated and exiled 
Emperor as a blunderer and a fool. It chains the rebel, 
Jefferson Davis, in a dungeon because he was the unsuc- 
cessful leader of Sovereign States in their assertion of the 
right of self-government; and, from the throats of twenty 
thousand fourth of July orators', it fills the ears of the 
unsuccessful rebel in prison with the praises of the success- 
ful rebel, George Washington, who led revolting colonies 
against the armies of their lawful sovereign. It condones 
in the child of genius the vices, and even the crimes, 
that it execrates in common. It smiles upon the heart- 
less libertine, who deserves death, and smites with endless 
disgrace his trusting victim, lured to ruin by his wiles. 
It accords the highest social distinction to the thief who 
steals millions of dollars, and sends to prison the starving- 
wretch who steals a loaf of bread. It crowns as a hero the 
mighty robber and wholesale murderer who grasps nations 
by the throat, strips them of their liberties and kills thous- 
and- of brave men who dare to die in defense of their 
homes; and it takes the man who commits highway rob- 
bery bul once, or who murders only one man, and impris- 



PUBLIC OPINIO 1ST AND DIVINE LAW. 119 

ons him for life, or hangs him by the neck until he is 
dead. 

Public opinion is an unsafe rule of life because it does 
not hesitate to overawe the conscience of those who bow 
to its authority and force them upon lines' of conduct that 
are wicked and infamous. Felix knew that Paul was in- 
nocent of the crimes laid to his charge by the Jews, and 
his conscience required that he set the Apostle free; but 
Felix was the slave of public opinion, and, yielding to its 
demands, he left Paul in bonds. Pilate declared from 
the judgment seat that he found no fault in Jesus', and he 
was therefore under the most sacred obligation to protect 
this preacher of righteousness against the fury of the mob ; 
but Pilate was the slave of public opinion, and, surrender- 
ing his convictions of duty in response to its blood-thirsty 
clamors, he was guilty of the most atrocious judicial mur- 
der that has stained the records of time. Public opinion 
is wholly indifferent to the conscientious scruples of those 
over whom it rules; feels no compassion for the suffering 
involved in their obeying the requirements; sternly in- 
sists that they sacrifice all that is sacred in character upon 
the altar of reputation, and then, with satanic heartless- 
ness, curses their memory and dooms them to disgrace for 
submitting to be its slaves. 

Public Opinion is an unsafe rule of life because it has 
no control over man's eternal destiny. However potent 
it may be in determining his social status on earth, it has 
no voice in deciding his future state. It can confer no 
honor upon its favorites in the world to come, and can fix 
no stigma upon those whom it despises. It may brand 
Peter and Paul as felons, may behead the one and crucify 



120 PUBLIC OPINION A^D DIVIDE LAW. 

the other, and think to disgrace them forever, but the 
moment they pass the narrow boundary between time and 
eternity they are enthroned in glory, far above the reach 
of hands that would drag them down and the sound of 
voices that defame. It may ascribe divine honors to 
Herod, and cry out "he is a god," but the moment he falls 
from the throne to which circumstances have exalted him 
into the hell for which his iniquities have fitted him, it is 
powerless to redeem its idol, or to console. If, by its con- 
straining influence, it starts men upon a line of living that 
ends in the bottomless pit, it can hold out no helping hand 
to them there and can give them no relief from their woe. 

Whatever, therefore, the occasional good results of pub- 
lic opinion in restraining the passions of violent men, and 
however precious an honorable reputation, it is neverthe- 
less certain that he who adopts public opinion as his stan- 
dard of morals thereby imperils all his highest interests, 
and that the love of reputation, when made the controlling 
principle of conduct, is fatal to character. This truth 
was so rooted in the Apostle's convictions that he could 
honestly say, "It is a very small thing with me that I 
should be judged of man's judgment." He willingly 
bowed to whatever authority public opinion could justly 
claim. He thoroughly appreciated the value of an untar- 
nished reputation. He took thought for things honest and 
honorable, not only in the sight of God, but in the sight 
of men also. He was always ready to conform to social 
laws in matters of taste and propriety, but in questions of 
conscience, he was religiously indifferent to the approval 
of society and undisturbed by its censure. The law of his 
God was in his heart in such a sense that the voice of pop- 



PUBLIC OPINION AND DIVINE LAW. 121 

ular applause had ceased to charm him, and the voice of 
popular execration had lost its power to distress him. His 
loyalty to righteousness freed him from the slavish spirit 
that fawns and bends the knee that it may win the favor 
of the multitude. He feared Grod and it was therefore 
impossible for him to fear men. He was so intent upon 
achieving holiness of character that no time was left and 
no inclination was felt to nurse his reputation. There is 
no safety for any among you except in following his ex- 
ample. If you seek the praise of men as the end of your 
life, you will sink to the level of the despicable demagogue 
who barters principle for popularity. If you adopt pub- 
lic opinion as your standard of right and change as it 
changes, you will soon find that you have entered upon a 
process of mental and moral emasculation that takes away 
all power of independent thought and leaves you without 
integrity, without honor, without self-respect. 

When Paul wrote "He that judgeth me is the Lord," 
he affirmed in effect, that he acknowledged no rule of con- 
duct binding upon him except divine law, and that the 
attainment of a holy character in the sight of God was the 
one thing to which he devoted his life. He dared not rest 
in the favorable opinion of his fellow men, when they 
approved him, nor was he much cast down when they con- 
demned and hated him. He could not fully rest in the 
approbation of his own conscience even. He was not 
foolish enough as many are, to take it for granted that he 
was justified simply because he knew nothing against him- 
self. He was so thoroughly possessed by the truth that 
he was always judged of the Lord, that this judgment was 
in absolute accordance with the facts and would determine 
8) 



122 PUBLIC OPINION AND DIVINE LAW. 

his eternal destiny that, when public opinion in the church 
or out of the church demanded of him what was not in 
accord with the will of God he paid no heed to its clam- 
ors. 

I think that he was firmly fixed in the principles avowed 
in the text by the bitter experiences that resulted from one 
slight departure from them. He seems on a certain great 
occasion to have permitted his style of preaching to be 
dictated by what he knew to be the taste of his audience, 
rather than by the spirit of the gospel. In Athens, the 
home of orators and philosophers, he delivered a magnifi- 
cent oration, perfect in its excellency of speech, and persua- 
sive words of man's wisdom, an oration, the mere synopsis 
of which commands the admiration of men to this day. 
He dealt largely in philosophy; quoted the Grecian poets; 
showed himself a master of dialectics, and by the charms 
of a graceful elocution, held the attention and thrilled the 
hearts of his Athenian hearers. But that was about all 
there was of it. His ministry in Athens was well-nigh a 
failure; as compared with his success in other cities it 
was a failure. From Athens he went directly to Corinth ; 
and it was' doubtless on this journey that he formed the 
resolution he expressed to the Corinthians in these words, 
"I determined to know nothing among you save Jesus 
Christ and Him crucified." He made up his mind that 
he would ignore philosophy and poetry and metaphysics, 
and preach to these Corinthian sinners nothing but the 
gospel of salvation through faith in the crucified Christ. 
He further resolved that the simple story of the cross 
should authenticate and commend itself to their con- 
sciences in the sight of God; and therefore his speech and 



PUBLIC OPINION AND DIVINE LAW. 



123 



preaching among them was not with enticing words of 
man's wisdom such as* he had used on Mars' Hill. He 
laid aside the grace of the rhetorician and the wisdom of 
the philosopher which had so signally failed in Athens; 
and this, knowing full well what would be the effect upon 
his reputation as a public speaker. But the conviction 
had taken hold upon him that he owed it to the Lord and 
owed it to these Corinthians that they should be won 
to the embracement of Chrisitanity, if at all, by the wis- 
dom of God embodied in the facts of the gospel and not 
by the wisdom of man displayed in the persuasiveness of 
eloquent speech. As the result multitudes were con- 
verted, and a great church was founded in Corinth. But 
though converted, the Corinthians retained the culture and 
taste which demanded of public speakers rhetorical finish 
in every sentence, beauty of style and grace of delivery, 
and, therefore, the well-rounded and glowing periods of 
the eloquent Apollos led to comparisons that resulted in 
the fastidious Corinthians pronouncing St. Paul's bodily 
presence weak and his speech contemptible. 

These were the circumstances under which the noble 
words of the text were written. The Apostle insisted 
that if the Corinthians judged him at all, they should judge 
him as a "minister of Jesus Christ and steward of the 
mysteries of God, required to be faithful," and he gave 
them to understand that if they judged him as an orator or 
statesman or philosopher, or rhetorician, neither one of 
which he claimed to be, and condemned him because he did 
not measure up to their standard of excellence, he was alto- 
gether unconcerned as to what their judgment might be. 
And knowing that God approved his teaching, both as to its 



124: PUBLIC OPINION xVXD DIVINE LAW. 

style and substance, he did feel a holy indifference 
to the unjust and cruel criticism of those who had been 
converted under his' ministry and whom he loved as his 
own soul. Unmoved by the invidious comparisons and 
contemptuous epithets that filled the mouths of the Corin- 
thians when they discussed his merits, he calmly writes, 
"It is a very small thing with me that I should be judged 
of you or of man's judgment; He that judgeth me is the 
Lord." 

The spirit which dictated these words was characteristic 
of Paul throughout his ministry. When assured that his 
course was in harmony with the divine will he cared very 
little for what men thought or said about him. He knew 
that to be good in the sight of God was infinitely better 
than to be accounted great among men. He knew that when 
the most splendid reputation shall have faded into forget- 
fulness, holiness of character shall abide, the title to 
immortal honor and the source of eternal blessedness; that, 
when the voice of public opinion, reciting the praises of 
its favorites, shall have been hushed in silence, the voice 
of G-od, filling the hearts of His saints with the music of 
divine benedictions, shall sound on and thrill their souls 
with an everlasting joy. And, therefore, while cheerfully 
yielding his personal preferences in matter of taste and 
manners to the requirement of social law, he was inflexible 
and uncompromising whenever it sought to interfere with 
his convictions of duty. He was ready to stand alone for 
the cause of God against a world in arms for the mainten- 
ance of wrong; and when the test came, he was faithful 
even unto death, choosing to lay down his life rather than 



PUBLIC OPINION AND DIVINE DAW. 125 

renounce his principles in obedience to the demand of a 
corrupt public opinion. 

How glorious was the issue of his religious indifference 
to public opinion and his unswerving allegiance to the law 
of Grod you know. His heroic stand for the right sub- 
jected him to misrepresentation, to persecution, to martyr- 
dom, it is true, but it built up in him the most symmetri- 
cal, the strongest, the grandest Christian character that 
has ever adorned the history of the church; invested his 
name with a spiritual influence that has been a fountain 
of blessing to all after generations of Christians, has 
crowned him with glory and honor and immortality in 
heaven; and more, and what he never anticipated, has 
given him a reputation on earth whose ever increasing 
splendor puts into eclipse all the glory of the orators and 
philosophers and statesmen whom the public opinion of 
his day accounted worthy of the highest honor. 

The law of the Lord is the one infallible rule of life, 
the perfect standard of morals and the only foundation 
upon which character can be safely built. It is not arbi- 
trary in anything it commands or prohibits. It is the 
revealed will of Him who from all eternity thinking the 
right has responded in self-prompted and perfect allegi- 
ance. As one has well said, "this allegiance of God to the 
everlasting, ideal law of right, is His righteousness, the 
sum of all His perfections, and the root and spring of all 
he governs for." His commandments are this "everlast- 
ing, ideal law of right, " proclaimed in its relation to us 
men. The law of the Lord, therefore, a is holy just and 
good." Its authority is supreme, and it endureth forever. 

He whose perfections are all unified in his allegiance to 



126 PUBLIC OPINION AND DIVINE LAW. 

the perfect law of right made man "in his own image after 
his own likeness/' and human nature, modelled after 
God's nature, can never find its perfection except in the 
unneation of all its elements in the harmony of a holy 
character. In saying "Let us make man in our image," 
God proposed to create a finite copy of Himself, — a being 
whose excellence was to consist in His free and perfect al- 
legiance to that holy law which, only to know it is to be 
eternally under obligation to obey. Man's well-being is 
necessarily conditioned by this, the original plan of his 
creation. Outside of it, no provision was made, or could 
have been made for his perfection or blessedness. 

The true end of human life, therefore, — the only end 
worth living for, — is the achievement of a holy character. 
Whatever other successes may mark man's earthly life, if 
he fails of success in this, his life ends in remediless fail- 
ure. Men may honor him while he lives and celebrate 
his praises in song and story centuries after he is dead, but 
his unholiness of character involves him in irreparable 
ruin. The sin he cherishes defiles his thought, corrupts 
his passions, enslaves his will and makes his spiritual na- 
ture the seat of ceaseless strife — a strife between insatiable 
lust and indestructible conscience — a strife in which thaf 
which is lowest gains an every increasing ascendency over 
that which is highest in his nature until in the end his 
whole spiritual manhood is sunk in shame. Sin cuts his 
soul loose from all its moorings of happiness and hope, 
separates him from God and puts enmity between him 
and the supreme spiritual power of the universe. It sub- 
jects him to the penalties of the eternal law of right, 
whose penal sanctions are as" awful as its precepts are 



PUBLIC OPINION AND DIVINE LAW. 127 

sacred, and, by the returnless sweep of whose retributive 
processes, his guilty spirit is hurled forever further out 
into outer darkness and cast forever deeper down into the 
pit of misery that is bottomless. 

On the other hand, though every enterprise that en- 
gages a man's energies, save that which aims at holiness of 
character, ends in failure, if he succeeds in this his life is 
a glorious success. Whatever the verdict of public opin- 
ion, he only is a manly man, a really and grandly success- 
ful man who attains that spiritual state in which he is 
wholly ruled by the law of God. Loyalty to the right is 
the basis of all that is praiseworthy in man. It is the 
ground work of genuine greatness. ~No wealth of talent, 
no brilliancy of genius, no thoroughness of culture can 
compensate for the lack of it. The measure of it there 
is in a man is the measure of his real worth. Loyalty to 
the right, uncompromising and incorruptible, is the essen- 
tial glory of true manhood. 

He who makes the law of the Lord the rule of his life, 
and builds his character upon the: eternal principles' of 
righteousness shall stand at last among those whom Grod 
and the angels recognize as the noblemen of the human 
race, and shall take his place with those who are crowned 
kings and priests unto Grod forever. The everlasting law 
of right which he has incorporated in his character shall 
authorize and demand his coronation, and the Lord Him- 
self shall place upon his brow that crown of life which is 
the sign of a grander victory than Caesar ever won and a 
greater glory than Alexander ever knew. The issue of 
his loyalty to the right shall be a spiritual manhood radiant 



128 PUBLIC OPINION AXD DIVINE LAW. 

in the image of the glory of God and an immortality rich 
in holy activities' and blissful experiences. 

The Apostle sums up the whole matter in one sentence 
which we shall all do well to adopt as our motto, — "He 
that judgeth me is the Lord." He does judge you every 
one, and besides this fact there is little else of much con- 
sequence. The judgment that your fellow men pronounce 
upon you is based upon a very imperfect knowledge of 
your character and conduct; and is doubtless, a vast dif- 
ference between what they believe you to be and what you 
really are. But God searches your hearts. He knows 
every event in your past history and every element that 
enters into your character; and His judgment of you is 
absolutely true to truth: what He judges you to be you 
really are. 

Again, the judgment of men concerning you, whatever 
influence it may have upon your earthly fortunes, shall 
not in the slightest degree affect your eternal destiny. 
You may have among them the reputation of a saint, but 
this shall not weigh in your favor so much as the small 
dust in the balances when you stand at the judgment bar 
of God. On the other hand, you may be despised of men, 
accounted a hypocrite, too vile to live, but this shall not 
turn the scales' of divine justice one hair's breadth against 
you in the great day of doom. Public opinion can affect 
you neither for weal nor woe, after you are dead : but the 
judgment of God shall determine your eternal destiny and 
iix your everlasting home in heaven or in hell. 

It would be sheer mockery for any man to preach to 
you thus if "God had not sent His Son in the likeness of 
sinful flesh, and for sin condemned sin in the flesh that the 



PUBLIC OPINION AND DIVINE LAW. 



129 



righteousness' of the law might be fulfilled" in them that 
believe. Alas', you are all very far gone from original 
righteousness. The guilt of many actual transgressions 
is upon you, and, left to your own resources, you would be 
ground to powder by the retributive processes of that 
eternal law of right which you have violated. But J esus 
Christ is righteousness and sanetifieation and redemption 
to every one that believeth. Not only may your guilt be 
cancelled through faith in him, but your moral nature, 
in all its affections and principles, may be brought into 
harmony with the perfect law of God. Jesus Christ, who 
was crucified to make propitiation for sin, and who ever 
liveth to make intercession for you, is the end of the law 
for righteousness to every one that believeth, and, there- 
fore, all the tremendous sanctions of the eternal and inex- 
orable law of God are concentrated in the authority and 
intense earnestness with which the gospel cries, "Believe 
upon the Lord Jesus Christ. " "This is the work of God 
that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent" — that you 
believe on Him with that faith which shall make you one 
with Him in the Spirit of your mind, which works by love 
and purifies the heart, which cleaves to Him and obeys 
Him though all men hate and persecute you for His sake. 

Take heed to your ways according to the Word of God. 
While providing for things honest in the sight of men, 
yet never be the slave of public opinion. Make the law 
of the Lord your one standard of character, your one rule 
of life. In all relation®, under all circumstances, rever- 
ently inquire what the Lord would have you do, and reso- 
lutely set yourselves to do it. Cherish the spirit of uncom- 
promising loyalty to the right. Do not let any fear of 



130 PUBLIC OPINION AND DIVINE LAW. 

ridicule, any dream of ambition, any desire to stand with 
a world that lieth in wickedness make you forfeit the favor 
of Him whose smile is the sunshine of heaven and whose 
frown is the shadow of eternal death. 

"The path of duty is the way to glory, 
He, that ever following her commands 

Thro' the long gorge to the far light, hath won 
His path upwards, and prevailed, 

S'hall find the toppling crags of duty scaled 

Are close upon the shining table lands 
To which our God Himself i s both moon and sun." 



SERMON IX. 



WORLDLY AND CHRISTIAN GREATNESS. 

"But Jesus called them unto Him, and said, Ye know that the 
princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they 
that are great exercise authority over them. 

"But it shall not be so among you ; but whosoever will be great 
among you, let him be your minister; 

And whosoever will te chief among you, let him be your ser- 
vant; 

"Even as the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to 
minister, and to give His life a ransom for many." — St. Matthew 
XX: 25-23. 

The Jews believed that the Messiah was to be a conquer- 
ing hero, that he would subjugate all nations, make J erusa- 
lem the capital of a world-wide empire and GTod's chosen 
people the ruling race on earth. Doubtless they antici- 
pated many and very great spiritual benefits as the result 
of the establishment of the Messiah's kingdom; but it was 
the worldly power and glory of His kingdom, that chiefly 
occupied their thought and inspired their hope. There 
was never any time in the history of the Jews previous to 
the coming of Christ when the spiritual phase of the Mes- 
siah's kingdom and work was so nearly lost sight of in the 
overmastering desire for the appearance of their hero-king 
and that deliverance and exaltation of Israel which they 
believed He was to accomplish. Zion, "beautiful for situ- 
ation the joy of the whole earth," the city of the great 
king, the glory of Israel, was a Roman citadel. The cur- 
rent coin of the land bore the image and superscription of 
Caesar. The Roman tax-gatherers oppressed and impov- 



132 WORLDLY AND CHRISTIAN GREATNESS. 

erished the children of Abraham. The heathen had pos- 
session of the Lord's inheritance. The scorned and hated 
Gentile ruled over the chosen people. The heart of Israel 
was burning with suppressed hatred and hope, — hatred of 
the Roman, — hope of the speedy coming of Him who was 
to redeem Israel from the yoke that humiliated and en- 
raged a people who believed themselves to be superior to 
all other peoples. 

The disciples of our Lord shared largely in the views of 
the Messiah's office and work prevalent among all classes 
in their day. It was evidently with these views in his 
mind that Peter, desiring to know what was to be the re- 
ward of himself and the other apostles for their devotion 
to Jesus, said to him, "Behold we have forsaken all and 
followed thee; what shall we have therefore?" To this 
question Jesus replied, "Verily, I say unto you, that ye 
which have followed me in the regeneration, when the Son 
of Man shall sit upon the throne of His glory, ye also shall 
sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Is- 
rael." The imagery here used by Jesus to indicate the 
high place the Apostles were to fill in the kingdom of the 
Messiah, interpreted by them in harmony with their Jew- 
ish conceptions of the nature of that kingdom, led them to 
suppose that, in the most literal sense of the words, they 
were to be enthroned as kings and rule over their fellow- 
men. 

James and John so understood the promise made by 
Jesus and they determined to secure for themselves the 
highest places in the Messianic kingdom. Realizing, how- 
ever, the indelicacy of asking for these places in person, 
they induced their mother to make the request for them; 



WORLDLY AND CHRISTIAN GREATNESS. 



133 



and she, bringing them to Jesus, bowed before Him and 
said, "Grant that these my two sons may sit, the one on the 
right hand and the other on the left in thy kingdom." 

This request of the two brothers was' inspired by a self- 
ish, sinful ambition. They coveted the seats next that of 
Christ, as the seats of greatest honor and power. But 
Jesus said to them, "Ye know not what ye ask." In two 
senses, this was true. In the first place, they did not know 
what it was to be near Christ in the throne of His glory . 
Their notions upon the subject were derived from the na- 
ture and forms of earthly governments. Nearness to the 
king in official position, in consequent authority and 
power, it is this that is desired by the ambitious subjects' 
of an earthly monarch; and this was the kind of nearness 
to Jesus sought by J ames and John. They were not ask- 
ing to be made first among the Apostles' in Christlikeness 
of character; they were not praying for preeminence in 
spirituality and heavenly mindedness when they came, 
saying: "Grant that we may sit, the one on thy right hand 
and the other on the left in thy kingdom." What they 
wanted was to be crowned with honor, to be clothed with 
authority, to be armed with power. Ignorant of what was 
to constitute nearness to Christ in His kingdom, "they 
knew not what they asked." 

In another sense this was true, — they imagined that in 
the Messiah's kingdom, as in the kingdoms of this world, 
offices and honors were to be distributed among the king's 
favorites arbitrarily. But Jesus promptly rebuked this 
thought: and, in the questions, "Are ye able to drink of 
the cup that I shall drink of, and be baptized with the bap- 
tism that I am baptized with?" he indicated to them and 



134 



WOELDLY AND CHRISTIAN GREATNESS. 



reveals to us the principle that shall control in the dis- 
tribution of the honors of the eternal kingdom. 

By his cup and his baptism Jesus means sufferings of 
like nature with those which He Himself endured, — the 
sufferings of self-sacrifice. Only they who suffer with 
Christ shall be glorified with Him. Only they who stand 
with Him amid the fires that kindle upon the altar of per- 
fect self-sacrifice shall ascend with Him the throne of 
glory on high. In the divine order, the cross precedes" the 
crown. Likeness to Christ in that love which sacrifices 
self and labors and suffers to glorify Ood and bless men 
can alone insure nearness to Christ in the throne of His 1 
glory. 

James and John, therefore, in praying for the places 
next that of Christ in His kingdom, were unwittingly 
praying that they, of all the children of men, might enter 
most fully into fellowship with Him in the experiences 
of that awful hour when His agony was such that He did 
sweat great drops of blood falling down to the ground. 
Asking for a crown, they were pleading to be nailed to a 
cross, and did not know it. Seeking the highest honor in 
the kingdom of Grod, they were courting the deepest humil- 
iation, and were not aware of it. They knew not what 
they asked. 

They did afterwards learn the nature of nearness to 
Christ in His kingdom and the condition of its attainment, 
and, having then the same mind which was also in Him, 
they willingly drank of His cup, and cheerfully submitted 
to the fiery baptisms of suffering in order that they might 
possess His perfect image and likeness. But, when they 
came, saying, "Grant that we may sit, the one on thy right 



WORLDLY AND CHRISTIAN GREATNESS. 135 

hand, and the other on the left in thy kingdom," it was not 
Christian greatness, but that which a selfish ambition cov- 
ets", to which they aspired. 

The subjects covered by the text are, 1. Worldly 
Greatness. 2. Christian Greatness, as exemplified in 
the personal history of Jesus. 3. The method by which 
Christian greatness is attained. 

1. Worldly Greatness'. "The princes of the Gentiles 
exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exer- 
cise authority upon them." 

There are those who are kings of men by the grace of 
God, — born leaders and rulers of the people. There come 
crises in human affairs that imperatively demand the pres- 
ence of such men: — times when a real king of men must 
appear or the nations sink down through the miseries of 
misrule into the horrors of anarchy; and, when the times 
are calling for a king, if it please God to send one forth 
among the people, bearing upon him the divine seal of 
kingship, human hearts instinctively recognize his regal 
nature, crown him king, if not in form, yet in fact, and 
right royally range themselves under his leadership. This 
man is' king by divine right. His will is the law of the 
land. No one questions his authority, or is hardy enough 
to dispute his right to rule. 

There is a genuine greatness that finds its sphere in the 
leadership and government of nations, — a greatness with 
which God invests those whom He anoints to be kings of 
men. But the world has mistaken one manifestation of 
this greatness for greatness itself. The truly great man, 
appearing in times of peril, by the free suffrages of the 
people, is made absolute ruler. Supreme authority is the 



136 WORLDLY AND CHRISTIAN GREATNESS. 

vestment with which they clothe him; and the whole power 
of government is lodged in his hands. Rule over men 
has been the most uniform and striking manifestation of 
that greatness w r hich has respect — to the affairs of this 1 
world. It has hence come to pass that extent of rule is the 
world's measure of greatness. "Whatever a man may be or 
do, unless, in some way, he exercise dominion over men, 
his name finds no place on this world's roll of great men. 
The spirit of the world, which cannot distinguish between 
true greatness and the authority and power with which it 
is sometimes invested, has written the history of the world ; 
and it has written "Herod the great," but it has never 
written Paul the great. In the mental and moral qualities 
that constitute true greatness and kingship Paul towers im- 
measurably above Herod; but the kingly forces of Paul's 
mind and soul were employed in blessing and saving men, 
— those of Herod in conquering and ruling men; and the 
world calls only its rulers great. 

Worldly ambition, therefore, knows no object but the 
power by which rule over men is enforced. In whatever 
sphere it manifests itself worldly ambition is essentially 
an inordinate desire for power. Vanity is satisfied with 
applause, and is happy if only it possesses the appearance of 
power; but ambition is indifferent to applause, and gladly 
surrenders the appearance of power if hereby it can grasp 
the reality. Everything else, oratory, official position, 
military skill, genius', wealth, popularity, — is esteemed by 
an ambitions man solely as a means to the acquirement of 
power. In the possession of this, and of this alone, the 
spirit of ambition is satisfied. Vanity in the orator is con- 
tent with a reputation for eloquence; ambition in the orator 



WORLDLY AND CHRISTIAN GREATNESS. 



137 



values the divine gift of eloquence itself only as a sceptre 
that rules the multitude. Vanity in the statesman aspires 
to nothing beyond a reputation for statesmanship; ambi- 
tion in a statesman covets the reigns of government, and 
never rests till they are within its grasp. The hands of 
ambition are empty unless they hold a sceptre that over- 
awes opposition, or that crushes it. Worldly ambition is 
intensest egoism seeking the apotheosis of self. Its essen- 
tial spirit is a satanic selfishness; fend rule over men is the 
goal towards which it bends all its energies. 

James and John, possessed by this evil spirit, sought the 
power that belongs to high official position. They wanted 
to be named Christ's chief princes ; and, in subordination to 
Him alone, to rule over Messiah's kingdom. This pas- 
sion for power was utterly repugnant to the nature of our 
Lord. He condemned as altogether evil the spirit that 
would seize upon supreme authority and command the ser- 
vices of those whom it had made its vassals; and, the mo- 
ment this spirit manifested itself among His Apostles, He 
hastened to teach them that to be great in His kingdom is 
not to possess the power that compels others to serve us, 
but to be possessed by the love that constrains us to serve 
them. Not the genius that exalts one to an earthly throne ; 
and not the talents that shape the policy of nations, is 
Christian greatness', but the love that labors and suffers 
and makes sacrifices that it may instruct the ignorant and 
comfort the sorrowing, and lift up the fallen and save the 
lost. 

While, therefore, "the princes of the Gentiles exercise 
dominion over them, and they that are great exercise 
authority upon them," it is' possible for the servant to be 
9) 



138 WORLDLY AND CHRISTIAN GREATNESS. 

greater in the kingdom of Christ than the prince, the cap- 
tive, chained to his conqueror's chariot wheels, greater than 
his conqueror; the humblest missionary, greater than the 
Pope of Rome, wielding a scepter over the consciences of 
millions of men; the daughter of a lowly American home, 
greater than England's great Elizabeth; the wife and 
mother, known only to the little circle blessed by her lov- 
ing ministries, greater than Catharine upon the throne of 
the Russias. 

2. Christian greatness, as exemplified in the personal 
history of Jesus. 

There is, as we have seen, a genuine greatness that finds 
its sphere in the leadership and government of men. This 
greatness was possessed by Jesus of Nazareth. In their 
highest degree all the elements that constitute true king- 
ship were his. Those who were blind to his divinity, 
could not but recognize the fact that this Nazarene was a 
king indeed. The common people, instinctively loyal to 
this king of men, were, with great difficulty, restrained 
from putting the crown upon his head ; and, led by such a 
king, they would have conquered the world. Jesus of« 
Nazareth, considered simply as a man, was the kingliest 
man that ever walked this earth; and had he been minded 
to enter their sphere, he could have put into permanent 
eclipse the greatness and the glory of the greatest of this 
world's great men. But he "came not to be ministered 
unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for 
many." 

The greatness of Jesus was the greatness of redeeming 
love; its measure, the extent of his self-sacrifice; its evi- 
dence, the deathless devotion to his person with which mil- 



WORLDLY AND CHRISTIAN GREATNESS. 139 

lions of human hearts' have been inspired; its symbol, the 
cross on which he died to save sinful men ; and its issue, the 
redemption of a world. 

Whether this should be His greatness, or whether He 
should take position among the great conquerors and rulers 
of men, was made a matter of election on his part, at the 
beginning of His ministry, in His temptation in the wilder- 
ness. In our study of the text it will profit us to meditate 
upon this temptation a while. 

How soon in his experience that increase in wisdom 
which is affirmed of the child Jesus reached the point 
where He fully comprehended His own nature and the na- 
ture of His mission, we do not know. It is certain, how- 
ever, that, in the hour when the prophet of God baptized 
Him, and the spirit descended like a dove and abode upon 
Him, and the voice from heaven testified, "this is my be- 
loved Son," if not before, He knew, that the long line of 
prophets, from Moses to John the Baptist, when they 
showed forth the coming and kingdom and glory of the 
Messiah spoke of Him. Then, if not before, the human 
soul of the Christ entered fully into the: consciousness of 
the fact that He, the Son of Mary, was "the desire of all 
nations"; that the past history of the world was the grand 
highway over which the Logos of God had come to his in- 
carnation in Him ; that He was the Son who was to be born, 
upon whose shoulders the government was to rest ; the 
Anointed One from whose face the fulness of the glory of 
Godhead was to shine forth upon men and angels. 

Along with this consciousness of his Messiahship and 
knowledge of the sublime kingship on earth and in heaven 
He was to inherit, He must have had f oreshadowings of the 



140 WORLDLY AXD CHRISTIAN GREATNESS. 

humiliation, the agony, the shameful death, through which 
alone He could gain possession of the kingdom of Messiah. 
Then was "he led up of the spirit into the wilderness' to be 
tempted of the devil." The record of the temptation is 
this, "The devil taketh him up into an exceeding high 
mountain, and showeth him all the kingdoms of the world 
and the glory of them, and saith unto him, All these things 
will I give unto thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship 
me." Whether this is a literal narrative, whether Jesus 
was literaly taken to the top of a mountain and saw all the 
kingdoms of the world, or whether we have in the evangel- 
ist's account of the temptation an allegorical drapery in 
which he has clothed facte that belonged exclusively to 
Christ's spiritual life, is a question of no moment. In eith- 
er case, there is here set forth a most real and most signifi- 
cant experience through which the soul of Jesus passed : 
and it is this experience that concerns us. If the record of 
the temptation is allegorical, then it is an allegory that is 
saturated with truth, and with truth that is authenticated 
by all the circumstances with which it stands associated. 

The human soul of the Christ, conscious of its regal na- 
ture, consciously possessed of power to win and hold the 
empire of the world, foreseeing the unspeakable sufferings 
through which he must pass to reach the throne of the Mes- 
siah, was tempted to turn from the path that led through 
Gethsemane, and the judgment-hall of Pilate to Calvary 
and the cross, and, renouncing the greatness and glory of 
Messiah, to possess himself of another kind of greatness' and 
glory by an easier and shorter way. Nothing could have 
been more natural, nothing more certain than the trial of 
the soul of the Christ by this temptation. The temptation 



WORLDLY AND CHRISTIAN GREATNESS. 141 

came, and with it there came the necessity of our Lord 
choosing between the two different spirits that sought en- 
thronement in his heart, the spirit of selfish ambition and 
the spirit of self-sacrificing love; and between the two an- 
tipodal kinds of greatness in which these two spirits find 
their issue, the greatness of a world's conqueror and ruler, 
on the one hand, and, on the other, the greatness of the 
world's redeemer. 

What the choice of Jesus was we know. There, in the 
wilderness, He trampled upon the spirit of worldly ambi- 
tion by which Satan sought to seduce him from that path of 
humiliation and suffering which led to the throne of the 
Messiah ; put from him the sceptre and crown and throne of 
a world-wide empire ; took upon him the form of a servant ; 
made himself of no reputation, and became the man of sor- 
rows in daily acquaintance with grief, that so he might 
save the lost. He refused the world's glory and chose in- 
stead the burden of its guilt and grief, and, to the end of 
life, bore this burden as if it had been his own. By his 
own election, "he was wounded for our transgressions and 
bruised for our iniquities, "and submitted himself to the 
"stripes by which we are healed." In this spirit of perfect 
self-sacrifice, deliberately chosen to be the ruling spirit of 
his life, he went forth from the temptation in the wilder- 
ness to build the throne of his greatness, not upon the 
power of the sword that conquers or slays its enemies, but 
upon the power of the cross on which he himself died to re- 
deem from death the souls of them who crucified him. And 
by self-sacrifice, Jesus of Nazareth, "ascended to the right 
hand of the majesty on high" and won "a name that is 
above every name," God ordaining, because he was obedient 
to the law of love even unto death, that "at the name of 



142 WORLDLY AND CHRISTIAN GREATNESS. 

Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven, and 
things on the earth, and things under the earth, and that 
every tongue should confess that he is Lord to the glory 
of God the Father." 

The greatness of Christ, as does every kind of greatness, 
implies power as one of its elements and manifestations. 
But the power of the greatness of Christ is not power ap- 
plied in the direction of rulership. As a matter of fact he 
does rule, and his dominion is more extended in its sphere 
and more absolute than that of any other ruler. He does 
rule, but not by force, nor yet by the authority of superior 
talent, nor by the hand of overmastering genius. 

The cross, symbol of self-sacrificing love, is the source 
of his power, and the f oundation of his kingdom. Upon the 
cross, he died that we might live. He loved us and gave 
himself for us. It is in the relation of these facts to what 
is noblest and best in our hearts that we are to look for an 
explanation of the mystery of the power that Jesus wields 
over men. If there were no elements in human nature 
making it responsive to such facts as these then the great- 
ness of Jesus would be shorn of its power and altogether 
barren of results in human history. But the heart of man 
is so constituted that it does respond in grateful, reverent 
love to the love of a superior being manifested in self-sacri- 
fice. Even hatred is conquered by love that endures suffer- 
ing unto death for the good of him who hates. Hatred 
may live on in spite of the conviction, "he loves me and is 
doing all he can to bless me"; but hatred cannot survive 
the conviction "he loved me always, and loving me to the 
end died for my sake." The seal of death invests love with 
a majestic power that no degree of enmity can resist. The 



WORLDLY AND CHRISTIAN GREATNESS. 143 

heart of man is conquered and ruled by the overwhelming 
moral might of love manif ested in self-sacrifice. 

This is the fact that relate© the cross of Christ to the 
heart of man in the way of power, — a power that is more 
masterful in its grasp upon the dominant affections and 
principles of human nature than any other that has been 
developed in the history of the world. The power of 
Christ's greatness is the power of redeeming love, — power 
that slays the enmity of the carnal mind and inspires them 
that believe with supreme love to the Redeemer, — power 
that takes hold upon the sinner in his depravity and guilt, 
lifts him up out of the horrible pit of his iniquities', trans- 
forms him by the renewing of his mind and mediates spir- 
itual union between him and the Father of Spirits. The 
power of Christ has destroyed, throughout a great part of 
the earth, the massive systems of idolatry that generations 
labored in constructing, and has substituted them by the 
worship of the living and true God. The power of Christ 
has revolutionized philosophy, society, art, literature, gov- 
ernment, and built the grand structure of modern civiliza- 
tion. The power of Christ has ransomed countless' millions 
from slavery to sin, has robed them in righteousness, has 
invested them with the image and likeness of God, and 
made them kings and priests in the celestial city. The 
power of Christ is a power upon character, a power that re- 
fines, ennobles and sanctifies. It is the power of God unto 
salvation. 

The greatness of Christ is not the greatness of the Ruler 
but the greatness of the Redeemer. It is not the greatness 
of the conqueror but the greatness of the crucified. And 
this greatness of the crucified, with what comparison shall 



144 WORLDLY AND CHRISTIAN GREATNESS. 

we compare it? If we would illustrate its nature or its is- 
sues, where in history shall we find anything to which we 
may liken it? The elements that constitute worldly great- 
ness', if not altogether absent from it, are wholly overshad- 
owed by its own distinctive characteristics. Oratory, 
wealth, office, military skill, scholarship, genius, — the 
greatness of Christ is independent of them all. Its chief 
element is a love of souls unparalleled in history, sublime 
in its nature, and well-nigh omnipotent in its influence; a 
love which, by self-sacrifice, binds human hearts to Jesus 
in a devotion stronger than death ; a love which, by self-sac- 
rifice, has founded an empire in human souls that, in ex- 
tent and duration and glory, causes all the empires founded 
by worldly ambition to sink into insignificance. The em- 
pires of Alexander, of Caesar, of Napoleon, where are 
they? They crumbled into ruins and ceased to be when 
the mighty kings of men, whose genius called them into 
existence, were discrowned by death. The power and 
greatness of the greatest conquerors and rulers perish 
when they die. But the death of Jesms was the consum- 
mation of his greatness and the source of his power. His 
crucifixion was the basis of his kingdom ; and, in this, the 
twentieth century since he was nailed to the cross, dying 
there for us men, his name is' more revered, his kingdom 
more wide-spread, his power over human hearts more uni- 
versally felt, and he, himself, more loved and worshipped 
and obeyed than at any former period in the world's his- 
tory. 

Let Napoleon and Ca3sar and Alexander come back 
through the portals of death to the places of their former 
greatness and glory; let them stand where the thrones of 



WORLDLY AND CHRISTIAN GREATNESS. 145 

their power once stood, and, from thence, let their voices 
sound out through the nations, calling for all on the earth 
who for love of them are willing to die. How many, think 
you, would respond to that summons? It is barely possi- 
ble that a few, with reluctant step, with the love of life 
struggling hard for mastery over the insanity of the hero- 
worship moving them, it is barely possible that a few 
might thus go to die for these kings of men for whom once 
hundreds of thousands laid down their lives. But let 
Jesus of Nazareth return to the place where he was nailed 
to the cross, and from Calvary, once wet with his blood 
poured forth and vocal with the mockeries of them who 
crucified him, let his voice sound out over continent and 
island and sea, calling for all on earth who for love of him 
are willing to die ; and, to the mount of their Lord's cruci- 
fixion, in response to that call, with fleet step and glad 
hearts, would hasten from mountain and valley and sea- 
side, from city and country, from king's palaces and ser- 
vants cabins, from every nation and tribe, thousands upon 
thousands, and hundreds of thousands following fast upon 
hundreds of thousands. The aged sire, bending under the 
weight of many years, forgetting his infirmities, would 
join the throng. The silvery haired matron, the strong 
youth, the beautiful maiden, and children of tender years 
from around our firesides, myriads upon myriads that no 
man could number would go to die for him who loved them 
and gave himself for them; and, coming into his presence, 
their faces radiant with the reflected light of his infinite 
love shining upon them, every one in that countless host 
would cry, 



146 WORLDLY AND CHRISTIAN GREATNESS. 

"Had I a thousand lives to give 
"Lord they should all be thine." 

The day is coming when mention shall never be made 
again of any greatness save that of Christ and that which 
is like Christ's; a day when all other kinds of greatness 
shall sink into eternal oblivion; a day when the ransomed 
of the Lord, out of every nation and every age, assembled 
around his throne, shall ascribe all greatness and all glory 
to the Crucified. Not one voice shall be inspired by fear 
of power; not one tone shall answer to the demands of au- 
thority, but all, attuned by adoring love, shall make the 
city of God melodious with ascriptions of honor and praise 
and dominion to Him who redeemed the world by His 
own precious blood. The greatness of Jesus is the great- 
ness of perfect love manifested in perfect self-sacrifice. 

In the text, he teaches* that, among his disciples they 
are greatest who most fully partake of his spirit. Purity 
and intensity of love, and labors performed and sacrifices 
made, and sufferings endured for love's sake, the measure 
of these in one's character and life is the measure of his 
greatness in the kingdom of Christ. In this kingdom, to 
have been a Napoleon, the greatest military genius of all 
the ages, shall be no higher honor than to have been the 
least talented soldier that died in the ranks, a sacrifice to 
Napoleon's ambition; having been a Demosthenes, the 
grandest orator of the most eloquent nation among men, 
shall not exalt the orator above the most unfortunate stam- 
merer who ever vainly attempted to give articulate utter- 
ance to his thoughts; having been the most powerful 
bishop that ever sat upon the papal throne shall insure to 



WORLDLY AND CHRISTIAN GREATNESS. 147 

this mightiest of the popes no precedence over the man 
who was door-keeper to his' cathedral. 

There are thrones in heaven, but worldly ambition did 
not build them, nor can it raise any one: to a seat upon 
them. The scene that Peter witnessed in the upper-room 
at Joppa, where the body of Dorcas lay in grave-clothes, 
ready for burial, may teach us the nature of those thrones 
and what is the path that leads to them. Around the si- 
lent form of this saintly woman were gathered the poor 
widows' to whom she had ministered, and, holding in their 
hands the garments that, with weary fingers, she had made 
for them, weeping in uncontrolable grief, between their 
sobs, they spoke forth her praises, and, of grateful memo- 
ries of her loving ministries, fashioned for her a throne as 
imperishable as the soul itself. There is a throne in 
heaven for this disciple, and thrones for all like her, and 
human love shall build them high, and God himself shall 
crown them who sit thereon kings and queens in the king- 
dom of the heavens. From most unexpected places, from 
many a narrow alley in the great city ; from many a lowly 
cottage in its suburbs; from many a humble country home, 
these kings and queens shall go up to their coronation in 
the skies. We may not know it; they themselves do not 
think it, but there are queens all about us, — holy women, 
for whom such as gathered about the body of Dorcas shall 
build thrones of glory in the better world. Kings' walk 
among us here below, men unknown to fame, despised, it 
may be, by the favorites of fortune, but who, through the 
eternal ages shall be enthroned in human hearts next where 
Christ reigns supreme. 



148 WORLDLY AND CHRISTIAN GREATNESS. 

There are different degrees of greatenss in the ranks of 
the redeemed, as there are different degrees of love in their 
hearts. Among them are those who shall "shine as the 
brightness of the firmament/' and those who shall "shine 
as the stars forevermore," those who, because they loved 
with pure hearts fervently, and made great sacrifices and 
endured great sufferings for love's sake, shall rise to a 
high place in heaven and be crowned with great glory ; and 
those who, because they loved with purer hearts more fer- 
vently, and suffered more and sacrificed more for love's 
sake shall rise to sublimer heights in heaven and be crown- 
ed with greater glory. There are thrones in heaven; 
thrones rising above thrones, and thrones above thrones to 
where high over all, upon the throne of universal empire, 
reigns the Crucified One: and it is love alone, love like 
Christ's, love that sacrifices self to glorify God and do good 
to men, that can exalt any human being to a place on one 
of these thrones. The measure of a Christian's love, and 
the measure of his self -sacrifice for love's sake, are the 
measure of his greatness in the kingdom of our Lord. 

3. The method by which Christian greatness is at- 
tained. 

"Whosoever will be great among you, let him be your 
minister; and whosoever will be chief among you, let him 
be your servant." By serving the neighbor, investing 
time and thought and labor in ministering to his wants, 
denying self and making sacrifices for his sake, your love 
for him shall take upon it, in fervor and strength the like- 
ness of Christ's love; and by suffering with Christ because 
you love Him, and entering into fellowship with Him in 
self-sacrificing labors' for the salvation of those for whom 



WORLDLY AND CHRISTIAN GREATNESS. 



149 



He died, jour love for Him shall more and more change 
you into His image until you attain that Christlikeness of 
character which constitutes greatness in the kingdom of 
God. 

It is along the same path by which Christ ascended to 
the throne of the Messiah that His' disciples are to go up 
to their coronation and enthronement in heaven. The 
voice of the Lord falls upon our ears from the upper 
sanctuary, saying, "If any man will come after me, let 
him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." 
Self-denial is refusing gratification to any desire or appe- 
tite or passion the indulgence of which would tarnish our 
personal purity; while cros's-bearing is obedience to the 
fundamental law of Christian salvation, — the law of self- 
sacrifice. It is the following of Christ in His love for 
men, — the love that takes upon its sympathies the burden 
of their sins and sorrows, and that labors and suffers and 
makes sacrifices to save them. The cross that we must 
bear is of like nature with that which Christ bore; and His 
cross was the burden laid upon His heart by His love for 
perishing sinners, — the love that identified Him in feeling 
with all our heavy laden and suffering race. In His love 
for guilty and lost souls of men he found His cross, the 
cross He bore all the way from His baptism to His' cruci- 
fixion, and under whose intolerable pressure, His heart 
did literally break at last. Whoever among you would be 
glorified with Christ must first enter into fellowship with 
Him in that love for sinning, suffering men that shall bur- 
den your hearts with sorrow on account of their guilt and 
grief, and constrain you to labor and make sacrifices to 
bless and save them. If possessed of this love, you will 



150 WORLDLY AND CHRISTIAN GREATNESS. 

surely drink of Christ's cup and be baptized with His bap- 
tism, and so be clothed upon in your measure, with that 
very greatness which is the glory of our Lord. 

In the estimation of God there is nothing good, or great, 
or glorious in the universe but love like Christ's. With- 
out its presence in the heart, genius is nothing, and knowl- 
edge is nothing, and service is nothing. The life of Solo- 
mon, with all its wealth of wisdom and magnificence of 
achievement, by his own confession, is naught but folly and 
emptiness, because not enriched by that spiritual wealth 
which only love can impart. The learning, the eloquence, 
the labors and successes of St. Paul are approved of God 
solely because pervaded and sanctified by the spirit of love. 
All the greatness possessed by any work of man, by any 
human character or life, is borrowed from love; and "love 
can make the meanest work divine;" the humblest life 
truly heroic; the lowliest child of Adam great in the very 
greatness of Christ. The love of the poor widow, put into 
the treasury with her two mites, makes these bits of copper 
shine with the brilliancy of diamonds and outweigh the 
costly gifts of the rich. The archangel himself, in the 
loftiest mission upon which divine authority ever sent him 
forth, never won higher praise from the lips of the King 
of Kings than he bestowed upon Mary when the fragrance 
of her love mingled with the sweet odors of the precious 
ointment with which she anointed His head. And the 
daily life of the least gifted among you shall be as glorious 
in the sight of God as the life of a Seraph, if the intensity 
of a Seraph's love burns in your heart. 

The path to Christian greatness is open to overy one of 
you. The poor ye have always with you, the suffering 



WORLDLY AND CHRISTIAN GREATNESS. 



151 



also, and the sinning; and the love that enters you by sym- 
pathy into the sadness of their estate; and sends you to 
them in the gracious ministeries of a Christlike charity, 
to relieve their wants, to comfort their sorrows, to 
lead them out of the darkness and misery of their sinful- 
ness into the light and blessedness' of the great salvation, 
shall enthrone you in human hearts and in the esteem 
of your Lord, and crown you with greatness and glory in 
the eternal kingdom of Christ. 



SEKMOtf X. 



THE PRESENT SONSHIP AND DESTINED GLORY OF BE- 
LIEVERS. 

"Beloved, now are we the Sons of God, and it doth not yet ap- 
pear what we shall be; but we know that when He shall appear, 
we shall be like Him, for we shall ree lim as He is." — I John 
III: 2. 

"The gospel of dirt," as Thomas Carlyle fitly names it, 
affirms that man is the offspring of matter, the product 
of protoplasm, the latest descendant of the monad, the son 
in direct line, of the reptile and the beast. An apostle of 
this "gospel of dirt" professes to see in matter the 
"promise and potency of all forms of life." He and his 
kind, using the words in their most literal sense, say "to 
corruption, Thou art our father; to the worm, Thou art our 
mother, and our sister." But this theory which evolves 
mind from matter, and life from chemical combination of 
dead atoms, and thought and conscience and love from im- 
personal forces acting upon impalpable particles draws 
drafts upon human credulity that never have been, and I 
am quite sure, never will be, honored by the common sense 
of mankind. 

While materialists seek to degrade human nature as to 
its origin, there is a certain class of theologians whose exag- 
gerations of the doctrine of human depravity would lead 
us to believe that man is now sunk into depths of iniquity 
and infamy from which he is not worth redeeming, even 
if his redemption from the state they describe were possi- 



DESTINED GliOEY OF BELIEVERS. 153 

ble. It was a very common saying with Mr. Whitfield 
that "man is half beast and half devil." If this were true 
one might well despair of the race. But in this saying Mr. 
Whitfield misrepresented himself and misrepresented his 
kind. Man has fallen from original righteousness, it is 
true, and is deeply depraved ; but even in his lowest estate 
there is something divine in man ; something that sings in 
his heart of heaven, as the shell sings of the sea whence it 
came:- — a reason, a spirit, a conscience that allies him to 
God and asserts for him a divine origin and an immortal 
destiny. 

There is in man a moral nature whose organ, indestructi- 
ble conscience, stands before the eternal law of right in the 
attitude of felt obligation, and which, above the law, rec- 
ognizes the eternal lawgiver, to whom it is confessedly 
amenable. There is in man a higher reason than that 
which busies itself with syllogisms; a reason that 
possesses, or rather is possessed by, the universal truth that 
irresistibly refer the mind back to God, as their principle. 
There is in man a spirit which necessitates a religion, and 
which, in its irrepressible struggle upwards towards the 
supreme good like another Sampson breaks in sunder all 
the cords by which that modern Delilah, hypothesis, mere 
theory, misnamed science, would bind this child of heaven 
down to earth. There is that in man which looks towards 
the limitless future lying out beyond death with instinc- 
tive premonitions of immortality and which 

"Secure in its own existence, smiles 

At the drawn dagger and defies its point." 

It is to these, highest, divinest elements of human nature 
that the gospel appeals. It addresses men as the offspring 
(10) 



151 DESTINED GLORY OF BELIEVERS. 

of the infinitely wise and holy God; as beings capable of 
knowing and loving and communing with the heavenly 
Father. It incarnates the eternal law of right in Jesus 
Christ, and so commands the allegiance of conscience. It 
makes manifest in Him, the personality, the glory and the 
grace of the one living and true God after whom all genera- 
tions of men have been seeking. It brings life and immor- 
tality to light by the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. 
It discovers to men in His perfect character what is their 
supreme good, unveils all its loveliness and makes its attain- 
ment possible. And the gospel of Christ has commanded 
the faith of men in all ages and of all grades of intellect, 
not merely, or chiefly, because its external evidences are 
overwhelmingly convincing, but because they have felt it to 
be a divine response to the cry of human souls after God. 
It commends itself to every man's conscience in the sight 
of God by the simple manifestation of the truth. The 
light and power of its' revelations are their sufficient cre- 
dentials. The sunbeams need no letters of commendation 
when shining in the eyes that were created to receive their 
light. There is no need of argument to prove that there 
is such a thing as harmony when the sense of hearing is 
thrilled with delight by the concord of sweet songs. The 
man who has been at the point of starvation does not re- 
quire that a chemist shall analyze and pronounce upon the 
quality of the bread that has satisfied his hunger and is 
invigorating every muscle in his body. And the gospel 
of Christ is to every soul that receives it what light is to 
the eye, what harmony it to the ear, what bread is to the 
hungry. Its perfect adaption to the spiritual nature of 
man, the full supplies with which it responds to all his 



DESTINED GLORY OF BELIEVERS. 



155 



spiritual wants, and the divine life with whose blessed 
experiences it fills the whole sphere of his spiritual con- 
sciousness, are the demonstration of its divine origin. 

The text proclaims 1 1 . The present relation of believers 
to God. "Beloved, now are we the sons of God." 2. The 
sublime destiny which is to be theirs in the world to come. 
"It doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that 
when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall 
see Him as He is." 

1. "Beloved, now are we the sons of God." There is a 
sense in which all men are sons of God. The soul, which 
is the man, was a direct emanation from Godhead. The 
body, formed of the dust of the ground, at death returns to 
the dust whence it was taken; but the spirit "to God who 
gave it," — not who formed or created it, but "who gave it." 
The Scriptures nowhere intimate that the soul was con- 
structed of already existing substances, or that it was' called 
into being by creative power. They give us the genesis of 
the soul after this wise, — teaching that God formed the 
human body of the dust of the ground, they teach that he 
breathed into the nostrils of this body, "the breath of life, 
and man became a living soul." As to his 1 spiritual nature 
every man is "the son of Adam, who was the son of God." 
And the soul of man, coming forth originally immediately 
from God, however completely it may have lost His moral 
likeness, retains his natural image always 1 : that is to say, 
man, as man, is* possessed of a spiritual nature, different 
from and superior to mere intellect, — a spiritual nature like 
that of God, by virtue of which he can be a partaker, not 
only of the divine thought and wisdom, but of the divine 
life and love and righteousness. In this fact, though he 



156 



DESTINED GLORY OF BELIEVERS. 



bo a spiritual pauper on earth, he bears with him always 
evidence that proves him to be a son of the King of kings. 

But the text claims for believers that they are sons of 
God in another and higher sense than this. While the 
natural image of God is indelibly stamped upon man, and 
is that which constitutes him man, a being radically differ- 
ent from and immeasurably superior to a mere animal, yet 
the moral likeness of God which consists' of righteousness 
and true holiness has been lost through sin. In the spirit 
of his mind, in his ruling aff ections and principles, the un- 
regenerate man is an alien from his father's house. Though 
a son he is' a prodigal son, who has repudiated his filial rela- 
tion to the heavenly Father, has become the enemy of God 
by wicked works and has forfeited his place and inheri- 
tance among the children of the Most High. 

What St. John means to affirm in the text is that be- 
lievers are the sons of God in such a sense that they bear 
His moral likeness, are members of His household, par- 
take of His nature and are heirs of the inheritance that is 
undefiled and incorruptible. They are those of whom 
the Apostle writes in another place in these words, "As 
many as received Christ, to them gave He power to be- 
come the sons of God, even to them which believe on 
His name, which were born, not of blood, nor of the will 
of the flesh, nor of man, but of God." "Born of 
God," his sons by spiritual generation, they already pos- 
sess, in outline at least the image of His character; and 
the Holy Ghost is filling in this outline with all the 
spiritual excellencies that constitute the beauty of the 
Lord. 



DESTINED GLORY OF BELIEVERS. 



157 



They are the sons of Grod as to the spirit of their own 
minds. They have filial reverence for His authority. 
The obedience they render to His commandments is not 
the reluctant service of slaves, extorted by fear of pun- 
ishment; nor is it the discharge of a duty under the con- 
straint of conscience, but the free, glad outgoing into 
life of that filial spirit which finds its meat and drink in 
doi'ig the heavenly Father's will. They have filial trust 
in Him. Their faith in His truth is implicit. Their 
confidence in His wisdom and goodness is unquestioning. 
Their assurance of His love for them is wrought into the 
warp and woof of their daily experience. Without the 
shadow of a fear they commit themselves and all their 
interests for time and eternity to His holy keeping, and 
feel absolutely safe there. They have filial love for Him. 
The revelation of His character and the manifestation of 
His love for them in Christ have inspired them with a 
love for Him that is more fervent than any other love of 
their hearts. They love Him, the ever blessed heavenly 
Father, more than all earthly friends, more than life it- 
self, love Him with the whole heart and soul and mind 
and strength. 

They are the sons of God, not only as to the spirit of 
their own minds, but in the fact that His affections to- 
wards them are the affections of a Father. He speaks to 
them in His Word, saying, "I will be a Father unto you." 
And, in all the wonderful patience and riches of grace 
and tender compassion and infinite love that appertain 
to divine fatherhood, He is their father. He carries them 
always, with all their weaknesses and infirmities and 
griefs, upon His great heart of love. If they stumble 



158 



DESTINED GLORY OF BELIEVERS. 



and fall, He lifts them up. If they wander from the 
right way, he gently leads them back. If they are weary 
and faint, He succors and cheers them by His grace. If 
they sorrow, He comforts them even as one whom his 
mother comforteth. If they are disobedient and rebel- 
lious, he chastens them in love. If they are faithful and 
obedient, He causes His face to shine upon them and il- 
lumines their heart and way by the sunshine of His smile. 

"Beloved now are we the sons of God." "Sons of God." 
He who is on the throne of universal empire, whom angels 
worship and cherubim and seraphim adore, "God 
over all, blessed forever," is our Father. He is 
watching over us in love. He is ordering our steps 
and choosing our changes and making all things work 
for our good. God is our Father, and all the forces 
of nature, all the might of angelic hosts, all the re- 
sources of Godhead are under bonds to bless us'. God is 
our Father, and He is a Father whose love never changes, 
whose patience never tires, whose gentleness never fails, 
whose wisdom never errs, and whose treasures of grace and 
power, pledged to our defense and salvation, can never be 
exhausted. 

And the heavenly Father, who has' called us sons, shall 
vindicate our right to the name by making us worthy to 
bear it. By the discipline of suffering; by the purifying 
fires of affliction, if need be; by the transforming power 
of the truth as it is in Jesus; by the sanctifying influences 
of the Holy Spirit; by the inshining of the light of the 
knowledge of His glory in the face of Christ, He shall 
carry forward His work of grace in our experience until 
the day of His appearing, when, seeing Him as He is, we 



DESTINED GLORY OF BELIEVERS. 159 

shall be like Him, — every part of our spiritual manhood 
so radiant in the glory of His image, that no eye of angel 
or seraph, looking upon us, shall fail to recognize us as 
the s'ons of God. 

2. The text calls us to consider in the second place 
the sublime destiny that is assured to believers in the 
world to come. "It doth not yet appear what we shall be, 
but we know that when He shall appear we shall be like 
Him, for we shall see Him as He is'." 

The divine ideal of perfect manhood has never been 
realized on earth except in the person of Jesus ; and in 
Him it was realized under such condition as greatly ob- 
scured its glory. It was not possible for the perfect man 
Jesus' to make manifest in the midst of His earthly sur- 
rounding what the perfect man shall be in heaven. He 
appeared here in the form of a servant. He was the man 
of sorrows, in daily acquaintance with grief. Through 
his infinite love for men, he was burdened in feeling all 
His life with a sense of their guilt and wretchedness. For 
their sake He endured unspeakable agony, and died on the 
cross to make atonement for their sins. While his heart 
was spotlessly pure, His character flawless, his life in ab- 
solute accord with the perfect law of righteousness, yet 
even in him it hath not been fully revealed what we shall 
be in the heavenly world ; for there we are to be like Him, 
not as He appeared in His humiliation, but as He shall be 
when He appears in the glory of the Father. 

We have known those who had the same mind that was 
also in Him ; whose character was adorned with the beauty 
of the Lord which was upon them; whose experience was 
enriched by that peace of Grod which passeth understand- 



160 



DESTINED GLORY OF BELIEVERS, 



ing, and whose faces we have seen irradiated by the light of 
a joy unspeakable and full of glory; and yet in these, the 
saintliest and happiest of the children of God on earth, "it 
hath not appeared what we shall be." In the most holy 
among them there are infirmities of temper and wrong 
tendencies that mar the beauty of the divine image on 
their hearts, and the hand of grief has struck chords in the 
spiritual nature of the most blessed among them whose vi- 
brations give forth a constant undertone of sadness that 
mingles with the notes of their most joyous songs. The 
Christian's highest attainments upon earth are but sug- 
gestions of the possibilities hidden in his nature, but half- 
articulate prophecies of what he shall become in heaven. 
Neither. in the large Christian mindedness and transports 
of religious joy that characterized a St. Paul, nor in the 
lofty spirituality and profound peace of a St. John hath 
it yet appeared what the least among Christ's disciples shall 
be. And you may take the wisdom of the wisest among 
men, and the knowledge of the most learned, and the 
moral vigor of the strongest, and the tender affectionate- 
ness of the most loving, and the holiness of the most 
saintly, and the happiness of the most blessed, and, put- 
ting all these together you may form your loftiest ideal 
of perfect manhood and yet, in the presence of this, your 
loftiest ideal, reaching up in the grandeur of its stature 
until, towering above the archangel, it touches God, it is 
still true that "it doth not yet appear" what we shall be 
when we see God as He is. 

It doth not yet appear what we shall be in mental en- 
dowment and achievement. The microscope in one di- 
rection and the telescope in another have added immensely 



DESTINED GLORY OF BELIEVERS. 



161 



to our knowledge of the creative power and fashioning 
skill of God; and they suggest the possibility of our pos- 
sessing in the future life such perfect organs of vision 
that we shall be able to see clearly into the furthest 
abysses of space and to perceive distinctly the minutest 
part of the smallest creature ever made. Along with this 
perfection of the sense of sight and a corresponding per- 
fection of all our other senses, we can conceive it possible 
for us to be gifted with the mental capacity to understand 
thoroughly all the laws and forces of nature and all the 
relations that exist between organic and inorganic beings, 
and thus to carry the whole universe in our comprehen- 
sion, but even this conception does not measure up to the 
intellectual stature we shall attain in our heavenly com- 
munion with the All-wise God. God is the absolute truth 
and beauty and goodness; and the knowledge of Him is 
the end of all knowledge. But, in studying His works, 
we see Him "through a glass darkly" and "know only in 
part." In heaven "we shall see Him face to face, and 
know even as also we are known." And, seeing God as 
He is, we shall see all the parts and relations of the uni- 
verse in their principle, as they exist in the divine idea; 
shall drink at the fountain of all true science, and, in the 
vision of God, the Creator shall possess the key that un- 
locks the mysteries of all worlds. Newton shall no 
longer bewail the fact that he is as a little child picking 
up pebbles along the sea-shore while the great ocean of 
knoledge lies unexplored before him. The vision of the 
Maker of all shall enrich his great mind with the wealth 
of the wisdom of God that has been lavished upon a thous- 
and worlds and a thousand systems of worlds'. 



162 DESTINED GLOEY OF BELIE VEES. 

In the vision of God we shall not only possess' the key 
to the mysteries of the material universe, but shall have 
also the key to the arcana of heaven, and all celestial 
mysteries shall be unveiled to us. To me, this prospect is 
not least among the attractions of heaven. Often, in lab- 
oring to solve the mysteries of creation and providence, 
intensely desiring to know the thought and purpose of 
God in His works and ways, baffled and beaten, I have 
felt deep down in my heart that I would gladly die only to 
know. There we shall know. In seeing God as He is, 
we shall matriculate in the only true university, that of 
which God Himself is the Chancellor, and in which the 
mental possessions of the youngest freshman shall make 
the riches of the wisdom of the wisest of the earth appear 
the penury of an intellectual pauper. The unsearchable 
riches of the infinite, divine mind shall be accessible to 
us, and there shall be no limit to the enrichment of our 
minds, which forever filled with all knowledge they can 
at any one time receive shall be forever expanding for the 
reception of larger treasure of divine thought and wisdom. 

But St. John refers in the text more particularly to our 
spiritual development and blessedness in the celestial city. 
There we shall "see God as He is and be like Him," — like 
Him in the spotless purity of our hearts, the perfect holi- 
ness of our character and the unalloyed bliss of our exper- 
ience. The saintliest of those whose lives have adorned 
the history of the church on earth have here "changed 
from glory to glory" into the image of their Lord 
by beholding the glory of God as in a glass, — behold- 
ing, that is, only the image of His glory reflected from the 
face of the crucified Christ and beholding this but dimly 



DESTINED GLORY OF BELIEVERS. 



163 



and by faith. And if such an imperfect vision of the 
divine glory as is granted believers while in the flesh, has 
power to change Saul of Tarsus, the proud, cruel, self- 
righteous Pharisee into Paul the humble, holy, loving and 
self-sacrificing Apostle of Jesus', who shall measure the 
transforming power of that vision of the glory of God 
which shall greet the saint when he passes beyond the 
veil? The splendor of all the perfections of the Most 
High, the fulness of the glory of Godhead, shall shine 
upon us from the face of the glorified Christ, and, in the 
white light of the perfect self-manifestation of God, we 
shall see Him as He is. We shall see Him with eyes un- 
dimmed by tears, unclouded by sin, unobscured by dis- 
tance. We shall see Him with minds freed from all mis- 
leading conceptions of His nature; with hearts that re- 
spond to all the loveliness and majesty of His character; 
with souls', which like the flowers', shall drink in all the 
light that falls upon them and reproduce its brightness in 
fragrance and beauty; and with spirits, which, like the 
most sensitive plate ever prepared by the photographer's 
skill, shall receive and retain the perfect image of the glory 
of God that shall shine upon us from the face of the glori- 
fied Christ. 

"We shall see Him as He is and be like Him." "Like 
Him." O beloved, no thought of ours can soar to the 
height of the rapture, or fathom the depth of the blessed- 
ness that shall be ours when the experiences of heaven 
reveal to us the meaning of these words. "We shall be 
like Him, for we shall see Him as He is." With unveiled 
eyes we shall behold the King in His beauty, and mind 
and heart shall feast upon the wisdom and love that shine 



164 



DESTINED GLORY OF BELIEVERS. 



from His face, and the soul shall thrill with rapture as it 
gazes, and we, transformed by the power of the beatific 
vision shall be consciously invested with the perfect image 
and likeness of our Lord. 

And this process shall continue forever. Throughout 
eternity we shall always be gaining a clearer vision of the 
glory of God already manifested, and ever beholding in 
Him new glories, beyond, to the inshining light of which 
ours souls shall respond in love and adoration and by the 
transcendent power of which our spirits, once so degraded 
by sin, shall be pervaded and adorned with a nobleness 
and splendor and beatitude that shall ever more and mo.e 
fully reflect the image of that glory of God which forever 
and ever shall be increasingly revealed to us. 

Beloved, there is a spirit of aspiration, in every one < 1 
you, which, however perverted by sin, still abides 'Toil's 
witness in your hearts to the fact that He wills that you 
attain glory and honor and immortality. The nature of 
the glory to which He calls you, I have tried to set before 
you. Every one of you is a child of God as to your origin 
and as to the essential elements of your manhood; and, 
through faith in Christ and the love and worship of God in 
Him every one of you may be a child of God in the spirit 
of your mind, and may be changing from glory to glory all 
your life long into His image. 

The theory that evolves man from the monad by natural 
selection and survival of the fittest has been discarded by 
the best intellects of the age as not even probably true; 
but the truth of the evolution the holy character and 
blessed experiences of a child of God out of the penitence 



.DESTINED GLORY OF BELIEVERS. 165 

and faith of a fallen and guilty man has been demonstrated 
in the consciousness of countless' multitudes. And I can 
pray for no richer blessing upon you than that living and 
dying you may be the children of God, clothed upon with 
His spiritual likeness', and that under the influence of the 
truth of divine fatherhood your character may daily de- 
velop in all spiritual excellencies, and more and more 
shine in the image of the glory of God. The possession 
of the likeness of the glory of the heavenly Father is the 
true glory of a man; and this is a glory that endures 
throughout eternity and that, in the vision of the unveiled 
face of God in heaven, brightens and beams with increas- 
ing lustre, forever and ever. God grant you every one 
that the experiences of an eternity in the celestial city 
may interpret to you the fullness of the meaning of the 
text, — a fulness of meaning that can be fully known, only 
when mind and heart and spirit are immeasurably ex- 
panded and exalted by the power of the beatific vision. 



SERMON jTO XL 



THE LIGHT OF GOD'S FACE. 

"There be many that say, who will show us any good? Lord 
lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us." Psalm iv:6. 

"Who will show us any good V This is the despairing- 
cry of men who have invested their all in earthly securi- 
ties and as the result find themselves bankrupt in both hap- 
piness and hope. "Lord lift thou up the light of thy 
countenance upon us." This is the prayer of a man who 
recognizes the fact that God is the true portion of the 
human soul, resolutely resists the seductions of wealth and 
fame and pleasure, and seeks his blessedness in that favor 
of the Lord which is better than life. 

The subjects covered by the text are, 1. The disap- 
pointment and despair in which a worldly life inevitably 
terminates. 2. The peace and joy with which the heart of 
man is filled by the lifting up upon him of the light of 
God's countenance. 

1. There are those who have learned the vanity of all 
worldly good while yet comparatively young. They 
have made the entire circuit of sensuous and social and in- 
tellectual pleasure; have proven the deceitfullness of 
riches, and been surfeited with fame before reaching the 
meridian of life. They have exhausted all sources of 
worldly enjoyment, and have found true blessedness in 
none. They are without God in the world; and, though the 



THE LIGHT OF GOD S FACE. 



167 



flush of young manhood is still upon their cheeks, the light 
of hope has waned and well-nigh gone out in their souls . 
Grey hairs are not upon their heads, but old age is already 
in their hearts. The shares' of time have ploughed no fur- 
rows in their faces, but the zest of life, the elasticity and 
freshness and bloom of youth are gone from them forever. 
Their weary eyes cast the same listless, hopeless , look upon 
all human pursuits and possessions. Their past is a deso- 
lation, where memory stands, a perpetual mourner, at the 
graves of the buried dreams of childhood and youth. The 
present offers nothing to excite their energies; the future, 
nothing to inspire their hopes'. Life has come to be a 
burden to them; and, if they ask, "who will show us any 
good?" it is in a tone of voice that indicates a settled skep- 
ticism as to the existence of any good in which the soul of 
man can rest. 

But hope is so strong in the hearts of the young that it 
is not often till old age is upon them that men who succeed 
in their worldly enterprises ask in despair, "who will show 
us any good?" The time comes however, it comes inevita- 
bly, when every man who centers his affections and hopes 
upon things seen and temporal, awakes to the heart-break- 
ing fact that his whole life has been a mistake and is end- 
ing in remediless failure. 

The bitter experience indicated by the question, "Who 
will show us any good ?" as asked by successful worldly 
men, is clearly set before us in the history of the author of 
the book of Ecclesiastes. The preacher, as Solomon styles 
himself, in that book, evidently began life under the im- 
pression that his own personal happiness was the true end 
of life; and he determined to secure it. He gained pos- 



168 



THE LIGHT OF GOD's PACE. 



session of everything in which man ever hoped to be 
happy; drank freely at every fountain of worldly pleasure, 
and feasted royally upon every earthly enjoyment. 

Richly endowed by nature, high-minded and aspiring, 
he sought happiness at the beginning of His career in men- 
tal culture, in large stores of knowledge and vast accumu- 
lation of wisdom. He gave Himself to know all the work 
that is done under the sun. By diligent study and pati- 
ent thought he garnered instruction from every field of 
investigation; and became by preeminence, the wise man. 
But what of that? Was he happy, because he was what 
the world calls' wise? Did peace fill his heart because 
knowledge filled his head? Alas! Hear his own confes- 
sion wrung from reluctant lips by a great and bitter disap- 
pointment ;" whoso increaseth knowledge, increaseth sor- 
row; and in much wisdom is grief." Happiness is not the 
handmaid of science. Peace is not the fruit of the tree 
of knowledge. Unsanctified learning never yet satisfied 
the soul of man, and never will. 

Failing to find blessedness in wisdom, Solomon said to 
his soul, "go to now, I will try thee with mirth; therefore 
enjoy pleasure." This was no vain saying in his' lips, as 
it might be in yours or mine. All sources of pleasure 
were at his command. He was king of a wealthy and pros- 
perous people. His reign was never disturbed by foreign 
war, or by factious opposition from his own sub- 
jects; and, wielding a sceptre, whose authority none dis- 
puted, with the wealth of an empire in his treasury and 
guided by a genius for enjoyment never excelled he began 
to test the power of pleasure to satisfy a human soul. 
Pleasure became the goddess of his' worship; and to her 



THE LIGHT OP GOD S FACE. 



169 



flowery altars lie brought all the members of his body, all 
the faculties of his mind, all the affection of his heart, and 
all the treasures' of his kingdom, a daily offering. It 
was no timid dalliance with pleasure that characterized 
him. He seems, for the time, to have forgotten Gk)d; and 
the voice of conscience seems to have been hushed in his 
heart. With undivided devotion he waited in the courts 
of pleasure and worshipped at her shrine. And pleasure, 
smiling upon her royal devotee, promised him, as she 
promises you, my young brother, all that he asked; prom- 
ised, and promised, but never fulfilled the promise. For 
every joy she gave, she gave him a thousand pains; for 
every flower, with whose fragrance she regaled his senses, 
she pierced his heart with a thousand thorns. The longer 
he tarried in her bowers; the deeper he drank of her exhil- 
arating draughts, the bitterer were the curses he showered 
upon the folly that made him first her dupe and then her 
slave. 

Her slave he became, as do all men who are lovers of 
pleasure more than of God. The more refined sorts of pleas- 
ure failing to make him happy, he did as many a man has 
done since, give himself to wine. It was promised him 
that wine would make his heart glad with a delight beyond 
the bliss of dreams. He believed the promise and drank, 
and drank; and he found that so long as brain and nerve 
could bear the unnatural excitement produced by wine that 
it did furnish him a fascinating counterfeit of happiness. 
But he soon learned from experience that the laws of na- 
ture, outraged by the wine-bibber, exacted a fearful pen- 
alty. In the end wine was a mocker and strong drink a 
raging tormenter. It tempted him, as it tempts some of 
01 



170 



THE LIGHT OF GOD S FACE. 



you; gaining the mastery over him it scourged him, as it 
will scourge you, with a whip of scorpions. At the last it 
did bite like the serpent, and sting like the adder. 

Emancipating himself from the power of the spirit of 
wine which had enslaved and well-nigh destroyed him, 
Solomon sought happiness in the enchantments of art. He 
thought that surely the bliss he had failed to find in wis- 
dom and wine and pleasure, awaited him in the banquet- 
ting halls of beauty and harmony; and he garnished his 
kingdom with magnificent cities; and adorned his cities 
with splendid palaces; and beautified his palaces with all 
manner of ornaments of gold and silver and precious stones 
and ivory. He bought him men-singers and women-singers 
and those who were skilled to play on all manner of musical 
instruments. He planted him vineyards and orchards, 
where graceful vines were trained over shapely arbors, 
and trees of sweetest flower and richest fruit, bloomed and 
bore fruit. As nearly as artistic skill and cultivated taste 
and unlimited wealth could accomplish it, there in Pales- 
tine, the garden spot of the world, he surrounded himself 
with an earthly paradise; and over all and through all, 
splendid palaces and beautiful gardens floated strains of 
entrancing music. And, in this paradise, he said to 
to his soul, "0 my soul, give o'er thy quest and be 
happy here." Fain would his soul have been happy here, 
but could not, for God ordained that in nothing less than 
Himself should it find its true portion. And, in utter dis- 
may, for the last and best that earth had to give failed to 
give him happiness, he cried, "This too is vanity." Wis- 
dom unequalled was his, and power unlimited, and wealth 
uncounted, and fame, reaching to the ends of the earth; 



THE LIGHT OF GOD^S FACE. 



in 



beauty and harmony lavished upon him their richest gifts; 
and, of all, he testified, saying, "Vanity of vanities," emp- 
tiness' of emptinesses, all is emptiness, and there is no 
profit under the sun." 

This experiment was so exhaustive; it was made under 
such favorable auspices and made by one so well fitted to 
command success, if success were possible, that it ought to 
have sufficed for all generations. Since Solomon failed it 
would seem impossible that any sane man could hope to 
find happiness in anything this world has to give. But 
men seldom learn wisdom from the experience of others. 
Generation after generation renews the search, after happi- 
ness, seeking it ever, and ever in vain, in earthly things. 
As Evangeline went forth into the wide world, seeking 
G-abriel, her beloved, so men go forth in pursuit of the ob- 
ject in which they hope to be happy. As Evangeline, 
"fair and young" are they when, in hope, the journey and 
the toil begin: as Evangeline, "faded and old" are they, 
when in disappointment and sorrow it is ended. For if 
haply, as she did, they come at last into possession of the 
object of life-long pursuit the object in which hope 
has promised the perfection of bliss, they find as Evan- 
geline found when she clasped Gabriel to the heart in the 
hospital that instead of the living, throbbing embodiment 
of joy, they hold in their embrace a livid corpse, whose 
touch is anguish. There may be those among successful 
worldly men who persist till the end of life in believing 
that money can buy happiness; that pleasure can impart it! 
that fame can insure it; but the great majority, sooner or 
later, unite with Solomon in testifying that so far as con- 
ferring blessedness on a human soul is concerned, riches 



172 



THE LIGHT OF GOr/s FACE. 



and honors and pleasures are all vanity of vanities, and that 
there is no real profit in any of them. 

Perhaps the largest class of those who ask in despair 
'"Who will show us any good?" is composed of men who 
have failed in their worldly enterprises. All around us are 
those who have made haste to be rich, who have toiled and 
hoped to to be rich, who have only poverty for their pains. 
All around us are those who have put forth earnest and 
persevering effort to rise upon the tide of fortune to high 
position and power among their f ellowmen, who have been 
forgotten by the world in the distribution of its prizes', and 
left in, what to them is, an abhorred obscurity. Failure 
has been the end of their best planned and most cherished 
enterprises in so many instances that disappoinment has 
at last deepened into despair. They have never learned 
that true happiness is not the gift of worldly honors or 
riches or pleasures'; but they have learned to look upon 
these things in which they hoped to find happiness, as for- 
ever beyond their reach. All that they have lived for has 
eluded their grasp, until now the feeling with which they 
take up their life morning by morning, is a kind of mute 
protest against the folly of living this life at all. In their 
lips the question "Who will show us any good ?" is a sneer 
uttered in tones of despair. 

This question is forced from the lips of many by the 
pressure of affliction. Loss of health, loss of property, loss 
of reputation, loss of loved ones upon whom their hearts 
were centered, affliction in one or many of its myriad 
forms, has made this world very dark and cheerless to mul- 
titudes of our race. The presence of a feared and hated 
skeleton is always with them. It lies down with them at 



THE LIGHT OF GOD S FACE. 



173 



night; it rises' up with them in the morning. It sits with 
them at the festive board; it walks with them in the funeral 
procession. Never a joy springs up in their hearts that 
does not wither and die under its baleful influence. Un- 
seen by others, its hideous features, never for a moment 
hidden from their eyes, haunts them night and day. With 
some, this skeleton is the remorseful memory of crimes 
committed long ago, known it may be only to themselves 
and God. With others, it is the blight that has come down 
upon the reputation or character of one dearer to them than 
life. With others, it is the consciousness of unrequited 
love, — the heart's whole wealth of affection lavished upon 
an unresponsive object. With others, it is the knowledge 
that their best talents have been utterly wasted, their most 
precious' opportunities forever lost. These children of af- 
fliction, these sons and daughters of sorrow in countless 
numbers are repeating the words of J ob, "Our soul is weary 
of our life." 

"There be many that say, who will show us any good?" 
They are in the city and the country, in the mansions of the 
rich and the cabins of the poor, among those who* suffer 
extremest want and those who have every luxury the world 
can afford. They have sought peace of mind, rest of soul, 
true blessedness, — have sought it diligently, and in every 
object in which they had any hope of finding it ; but have 
sought it in vain. When their plans have succeeded and 
when they have failed; when rich and when poor; when 
men have honored them and when they have dispised them ; 
always and everywhere they have been conscious of an un- 
satisfied want, an aching void in their souls'. There are 
multitudes who never learn what alone can fill this void 



174 



THE LIGHT OF GOD S FACE. 



and satisfy this want. Earthly happiness, an ever receding 
phantom, engages them in its' pursuit, until, with out- 
stretched and empty hands, they stumble into the grave at 
last. 

However sad the chord I strike to-day, there is a respon- 
sive vibration in the heart of every one here who has not 
made God his portion. It was time when you first began 
to suspect the vanity of earthly things' to pause in their 
pursuit and listen to the teachings of Him who made you 
for Himself. Let His voice instruct you to-day. That rest- 
lessness that will not let you rest; that great want in your 
heart; that sense of soul emptiness, has resulted from the 
irrational attempt to fill with some finite good your soul's 
capacity for the infinite God. You were made to love and 
commune with the Most High, to be His habitation 
through the spirit, to find in Him your perfection, your 
blessedness, your true life; and, outside of your filial rela- 
tions to the Father of Spirits there is for you no abiding 
place no real and lasting joy in this world or in the world 
to come. Your domestic and social sky may be unclouded; 
the sun of your temporal prosperity may never set till he 
goes down in your own grave; your mind may be illumined 
by all arts and sciences; but if the light of God's face is 
not lighted up upon you, the light of true blessedness shall 
never gladden your journey in time or in eternity. 

Lay this truth to heart all ye who are seeking to bless 
yourselves in the enjoyment of worldly riches or honors or 
pleasures, — you are hazarding your all upon an effort that 
is doomed to failure by the laws of your own being; and 
however bright your hopes' now, if you persist in your pres- 
ent course, you shall end by crying, "Who will show us any 



THE LIGHT OF GOD S FACE. 



175 



good?" doubting much in your poor soul whether there be 
any good in the universe of Grod that can insure to man true 
and permanent blessedness. By the changeless ordinance 
of heaven, a worldly life issues in disappointment and de- 
spair. 

2. Hearing from many lips the question so sadily indi- 
cative of the spiritual poverty and unrest of worldly men, 
the Psalmist prays, saying, "Lord lift thou up the light of 
thy countenance upon us." 

The meaning of this prayer will appear after a moment's 
consideraton. The countenance of a man, by its varying 
expressions, tells what is in his heart. Before he speaks a 
word we know, by looking into his face, whether he is 
pleased or displeased, whether he loves or hates us. We 
say of the countenance that is clouded with anger or lighted 
with pleasure; that it is lowering and black with wrath or 
bright and beaming with love; and when the Psalmist 
prays, "Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon 
us," he prays for manifestations 1 of divine favor. What he 
longs for is the assurance that God loves and approves 
him; and it is evident from the connection in which the 
prayer occurs that David looked for fullness of blessedness 
in the answer to it. In so looking he was wise. 

Love is the source of all real joy. The love of father, 
of mother, of wife, of child, is more to the heart of a true 
man than wealth, or fame, or pleasure. Earth has no joy 
comparable to that which results' from genuine unselfish, 
abiding love of a fellow creature. To be able to say of one 
justly esteemed, he loves me; to know that though others 
misunderstand and hate me, there is one true friend who 
knows me through and through and loves me, and if need 



170 



THE LIGHT OF GOD S FACE. 



be would die for me, goes very far towards compensating 
for all life's disappointments", and fills the soul with a pro- 
founder peace and a purer joy than money can buy or fame 
inspire. J ^ ' - : .| 

Human love is the most precious thing beneath the sun. 
There is nothing that is worthy to be compared with, and 
nothing of much value without it. What is wealth, if 
there be none who love us with whom we may share it? 
"What is fame, if there be none who love us at whose feet 
we may lay our honors down, and whose loving approval 
gives all its value to the crown we have won? What is 
pleasure, if there be none who love us whose community of 
enjoyment with us imparts its keenest zest to pleasure it- 
self? A man whom no one loves cannot but walk all the 
days of his' life in the shadow of an unspeakable sorrow 
He who knows that not a single heart- in all the world beats 
with true affection for him, in this knowledge sounds the 
lowest depths of possible desolation. But blessed is the 
man that is rich in love. It blunts' the edge of the keenest 
disappointments ; lightens the heaviest burdens of trouble ; 
takes the bitterness out of the greatest sorrows, and adds 
depth and volume to every stream of joy. 

And there is a love purer, stronger, more precious in it- 
self and more richly freighted with blessings for human 
hearts than any love of man or woman; a love, the assurance 
of which, fills the soul with profoundest peace, a love 
whose encircling arms thrills the spirit with divine rap- 
ture, a love, the light of which is the sunshine of true 
blessedness both in this world and the world to come. To 
know tht God loves me; to have the light of His counten- 
ance lifted up upon me; to feel the everlasting arms of my 



THE LIGHT OF GOd's FACE. 



177 



Father God round about me, holding me in the embrace of 
an infinite, changeless love, is to have, 

"The opening heavens around me shine 

"With beams of sacred bliss." 
I may be sick and poor and homeless and friendless, my 
name may be cast out of men as evil, but if amidst it all I 
know that the Lord looks upon me with favor, that I am 
precious to Him, that He loves me, I shall have in my one 
heart more true blessedness than all the generations of 
worldy men have found in worldly things since the world 
began. 

The Holy Scriptures have exhausted the strength of lan- 
guage in the effort to tell out the bliss imparted to man by 
the inshining upon his soul of the light of God's love. 
They call it a "peace that passeth understanding," a "joy 
that is unspeakable and full of glory." The light of the 
knowledge of the glory of the infinite love of God is the 
sunshine of heaven's eternal day; it is the joy of the angels; 
the ineffable felicity of the glorified saints; the rapture 
of cherubim and seraphim. The light of that love, shining 
upon the soul on earth, changes the dungeon where Paul 
and Silas are incarcerated into a palace of delights, melodi- 
ous with songs of gladness ; converts this vale of tears into 
the garden of God, and transforms the hearts of the chil- 
dren of s'orrow into a heaven of joy. 

The lifting up of the light of God's countenance upon 
man blesses him, not only in its immediate effects, but in 
many ways, I mention only two of these. 

In the first place, it inspires implicit confidence in the 
fact of a special and constant divine providence. If I know 
that God loves me, it is impossible for any kind of argu- 



178 



THE LIGHT OF GOD S FACE. 



merit to shake my firm faitli in His personal and unremit- 
ting care. If He loves me, then He never forgets me, and 
never for one moment abandons me to chance or accident, 
or the caprices of blind fortune. If he loves me, He orders 
my steps, chooses my changes, controls every influence and 
force that touches me, and makes all things work together 
for my good. Knowing that He loves me, I know that my 
lot in life is what His unerring wisdom appoints; and know- 
ing this, I know in whatever state I am therewith to be con- 
tent; how to rejoice evermore and in all things to give 
thanks. 

Again. The lifting up of the light of God's countenance 
upon a man is a source of blessedness in its effect, upon his 
character. The love of a holy fellow creature restrains our 
wrong tendencies, invigorates all our right principles and is 
an inspiration that makes' every noble achievement possible 
to us. He is less than a man who will wantonly wound a 
pure heart that loves him, and, if I know that God loves 
me, how can I wilfully commit sin, or fail to give all dili- 
gence in doing His will? St. John writes, "We love Him 
because He first loved us;" and the love for Him with 
which we are inspired by the assurance of His love for 
us, gives birth and nurture in our hearts to every grace of 
Christian character. The lifting up of the light of God's 
countenance issues in the personal righteousness of him 
upon whom that light shines, and "the work of righteous- 
ness in peace; and the effect of righteousness is quietness 
and assurance forever." 

Christianity is the absolute religion, or, to speak more 
accurately, it is religion absolutely; and the absolute re- 
ligion, objectively, that is, as an object of thought outside 



THE LIGHT OF GOVS FACE. 



179 



of us, is the infinite love of God for us, manifested in 
Christ; and subjectively, that is, as a faet of our con- 
sciousness, it is supreme love for God with which this 
manifestation of His love inspires our hearts. Christ is 
God's comprehensive answer to the Psalmist's 1 prayer. 
From the face of Christ crucified the light of the knowl- 
edge of the glory of God's infinite love shines full upon 
every soul that believes. Faith in Christ purifies the 
heart, sanctifies character and is the source of true bless^ 
edness, because faith in Christ is first of all and above all 
faith in the changeless and eternal love of God. 

I can pray for no richer blessing upon you than that, 
living and dying you may cling to the truth that God 
loves you; that, in the light of this truth, you may walk 
day by day, and that under its gracious influence your 
character may more and more shine in the likeness of the 
glory of your Lord. God does most truly love you. 
Hold fast to this truth in the days of your prosperity. 
When riches increase and the sun shines upon you from 
a cloudless sky, and friends multiply along your path, 
then count the truth that God loves you the most pre- 
cious of all your treasures, the brightest light that shines 
upon you, the chiefest of all your joys. God does most 
truly love you. Hold fast to this truth in the days of ad- 
versity. When the clouds gather, and the thunders roar, 
and the storm comes down upon the deep, and your little 
bark tossed upon angry waves is like to sink, then remem- 
ber that he who rides upon the storm and holds the bil- 
lows in the hollow of his hand is your God and he loves 
you. Hold fast to this truth amidst all the joyous and 
all the sorrowful experiences of life. It will sweeten the 



180 



THE LIGHT OF GOD S FACE. 



one and sanctify the other. Cling to this truth when you 
go down, as soon you must, into the dense darkness and 
deep solitudes of the valley of the reality of death. When 
the darkness of that valley gathers thick about you, hid- 
ing the faces of loved ones, weeping at your bedside, and 
you must bid them adieu and go forth alone into the night 
of death, then cheer your soul, saying, Fear not O my 
soul, God loves thee, and up out of the darkness and the 
solitude, he shall make for thee a shining path into the 
companionship of the glorified and into the light of the 
glory of heaven. 



SERMON XII 



THE DISCIPLES ON THE SEA OF TIBERIAS. 

"When Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and 
take him by force, to make him a king, he departed again into a 
mountain himself alone. 

"And when even was now come, his disciples went down unto 
the sea, 

"And entered into a ship, and went over the sea toward Ca- 
pernaum. And it was now dark, and Jesus was not come to them. 

"And the sea arose by reason of a great wind that blew. 

"So when they had rowed about five and twenty or thirty 
furlongs they see Jesus walking on the sea, and drawing nigh 
unto the ship; and they were afraid. 

"Then they willingly received him into the ship; and imme- 
diately the ship was at the land whither they went." St. John 
vi: 15-21. 

From Matthew and Mark we learn that is was not upon 
their own motion that the disciples attempted to cross 
over the sea. On the contrary, it is plainly intimated 
that they were reluctant to undertake the passage at that 
time. Before becoming disciples of Jesus, several of 
them had gained their living as fishers in the waters of 
this treacherous sea. Their former mode of life had 
made it necessary for them to watch the winds and clouds 
closely; and they probably saw signs of the approaching 
storm. The only vessel at their command was of rude 
construction and very frail; and they were not at all in- 
clined to launch forth in the face of the gathering temp- 
est. But Jesus "constrained" them, — this is the word 



182 THE DISCIPLES ON THE SEA OF TIBERIAS. 

used by both Matthew and Mark, — He put the whole force 
of His authority into the command, " Jesus constrained 
them to get into a ship and go before Him to the other 
side of the sea." 

isote this fact, in attempting to cross over the sea the 
disciples were obeying the positive command of their 
Lord: and it was therefore while they were in the way of 
duty, unmistakably in the way of duty, that the storm 
came upon them and threatened to engulf them. 

There are those who imagine that, so long as they sail 
by the divine chart and compass, they have the right to 
claim exemption from the perils of a stormy sea; and, be- 
ginning the voyage to heaven under this delusion, they 
become hopeless or rebellious whenever storms break upon 
them. Among those who have deserted the service of 
Grod there are not a few who try to excuse their infidelity 
to duty by pleading the fact that when in the way of duty 
they were overtaken by tempests. 

1. You are to learn from the experience of the disci- 
ples on the sea of Tiberias that though you keep your 
steady course towards the port whither God has bidden 
you go, you have no reason to anticipate a cloudless sky, 
a smooth sea and a favoring wind. Do not count it a sur- 
prising fact and do not fear if the wind be contrary and 
blow a gale, and the waves hurl themselves against you 
and seem ready to overwhelm you. The Master, in con- 
straining you to take ship for the port of peace, has not 
promised that fair and gentle winds shall waft you to 
the end of a pleasant voyage. He has warned you that 
you shall have head winds and rough seas: that you must 



THE DISCIPLES ON THE SEA OF TIBEEIAS. 183 

weather many storms, endure many hardships and pass 
through many perils bef ore you enter port. 

Or, changing the figure, while the way of duty is al- 
ways the way of safety, it is not by any means a macad- 
amized road; and they who journey along it are not 
cheered at every step by sunshine and flowers and songs 
of birds. Some parts of it, I know, are paved with peace 
and canopied with delights; but more frequent and in fur- 
ther reaches are the rough places, where sharp stones 
shall cut your bleeding feet and pitiless storms shall beat 
down upon you as you painfully toil upward. Think it 
no strange thing, and do not repine, if while you walk this 
way the sunshine fades from leaf and flower, and the path 
darkens before you, and the difficulties and dangers multi- 
ply as you press onward. Be of good courage; for, while 
God does not promise that no perils shall threaten and 
no pains shall afflict you in the way of duty, He does prom- 
ise, if you keep in the way, to bring you safely through 
whatever dangers or troubles may mark your earthly ex- 
perience. 

2. The example of the disciples in faithfully obeying 
Christ in the midst of darkness and danger is set before 
us in the text not merely that it may challenge our admi- 
ration, but that its moral beauty may win us to follow in 
their steps. For more than nine hours, they bravely bat- 
tled against the storm, though by incessant toil they had 
been able to go in all that time only about three miles. It 
was but this little way back to ihe port whence they had 
come. The wind blew strongly in that direction; and, by 
turning about upon their course, it was possible for them 
to land safely in half an hour and rest from what seemed 



184 THE DISCIPLES ON THE SEA OF TIBERIAS. 

a hopeless undertaking. But rest and safety in this direc- 
tion could be secured only by disobedience to their Lord's 
command. Jesus had bidden them go towards Caper- 
naum; and, though they made little progress when the 
storm lulled, and were driven back when it increased in 
violence; though their strength was well-nigh exhausted 
in the unequal struggle; though they were every moment 
in danger of going down under the shock of the waves, yet 
they toiled on. Jesus had said, "go towards Capernaum" ; 
and they seem to have quietly made up their minds that, 
if their ship went down that night, she should go down 
with her bow towards Capernaum, and with the oars in 
their hands. 

The conduct of these men was more than admirable; it 
was sublime. They toiled all night long in darkness; in con- 
stant peril, facing death hour by hour, unseen of men, 
ignorant of the fact that the eye of the Lord was upon 
them, sustained by a sense of duty alone. Almost any 
man can brave death when the choice lies between that 
and an infamy that is worse than death. In battle the 
running away of the coward is disgrace, an indelible dis- 
grace, and countless thousands of soldiers have had the 
courage to die rather than incur that disgrace. This sort 
of courage, if it merits the name, may be said to be uni- 
versal among men; but it requires a kind and degree of 
heroism that few persons possess to push on in the way of 
duty when darkness shuts out all observation, when fidel- 
ity to duty involves almost certain death, when to die is 
to sink into an unknown and unhonored grave, when 
safety can be secured without open shame and the soul has 
no support but its own sense of moral obligation. But it 



THE DISCIPLES ON THE SEA OF TIBEKIAS. 185 

was upon men doing this very thing that Jesus looked that 
night as he saw his disciples toiling and tossed upon the 
stormy sea. 

Brethren in Christ, I commend to you the example of 
these faithful men. The very spirit manifested by them 
is needed by you all. There come times in the life of 
every Christian that demand of him the temper of a hero ; 
times when he must make his way against opposing f orces 
most potent and through dangers most threatening, with 
nothing to inspire him or sustain but the consciousness of 
duty bravely done. In the experience of each one of you 
it shall sometimes happen that, through a darkness and 
loneliness unrelieved by the presence or sympathy of a 
single friend, you must cross tempestuous seas where death 
hangs over you in every toppling wave, or turn back upon 
the course of duty and disobey God. If you always do 
what is right you must be prepared to stand alone against 
a corrupt public opinion and hold yourself ready to sacri- 
fice reputation, social position, the friendships of a life- 
time and even life itself upon the sacred altar of duty. 
If, under these circumstances, you are faithful to God, you 
must have a religion whose foundations are deeper than 
religious sentiment and more stable than religious emo- 
tion; a religion that is based upon a prof ound and abiding 
sense of duty, and that resolutely does the right whatever 
the sacrifice or suffering it may involve. 

A religion that consists more of peace than of princi- 
ple; that centers in happiness rather than holiness; that 
finds its motive power in fervency of feeling instead of 
force of moral obligation, may serve well enough when 
the sun shines and the winds are gentle and the sea is 
(12) 



1 86 THE DISCIPLES ON THE SEA OF TIBERIAS. 

smooth ; but when night comes down upon the deep, and 
the lightnings flash, and the thunders roar, and the storm 
shrieks through the tangled cordage, and the sails are torn 
into shreds, and the waves rage like wild beasts seeking 
their prey, then a religion is needed that is rooted deep in 
righteousness, and that fearlessly holds' fast to duty in the 
face of death. During that storm on the sea of Tiberias 
there was literally nothing from which the disciples could 
derive strength or courage but their sense of duty; and, 
sustained by this alone, without the inspiration of relig- 
ious joy, in the calmness of an inflexible determination, 
they obeyed Christ. O for a church whose ministers and 
members are thus principled in righteousness ; whose piety 
takes no counsel of changing emotions; pays no heed to 
popular clamor ; shrinks from no sacrifice ; fears no suffer- 
ing, and is uncompromising in its loyalty to God and the 
right. 

3. On the divine side of the narrative we are consid- 
ering this fact is to be noted: Jesus left his disciples to 
battle against the storm in darkness and weariness and 
danger, in an agony of labor and apprehension through the 
whole night without affording them any relief. Why? 
We know him, and know that it was not from any lack of 
sympathy with them. He pitied their sore and strained 
muscles; he yearned in compassion over their tried and 
tempted souls. It would have been a joy to Him to have 
gone to them when the storm first broke upon them, to 
have hushed the raging of the winds and waves, and stilled 
the tumult of their fears. Why then did He not go to 
them sooner? Because there was something involved in 
His leaving them to be buffetted by the storm of vastly 



THE DISCIPLES ON THE SEA OF TIBERIAS. 187 

greater consequence to them than any rest or joy that His 
presence could have given them. On that perilous voyage 
they were put in training for a life-work that was to tax 
to the uttermost the whole strength of their Christian man- 
hood. They were to be leaders in a conflict with the pow- 
ers of darkness that demanded the corded muscles of spir- 
itual giants, and in which unquestioning obedience to the 
captain of their salvation was essential to success. The 
time was coming when they were to face tempests of hu- 
man rage more terrible than any fury of winds' and waves ; 
when they were to endure persecution, bonds, imprison- 
ment, scourging and death for righteousness' sake. They 
needed to be schooled to endurance to be rooted and 
grounded in the principle of obedience; and it was pre- 
cisely because Jesus loved them with a wise and holy love 
that he did not go to their relief until this needed disci- 
pline had accomplished its appointed end. 

You may rest assured that the severest trial to which 
your Christian faith and principles are ever subjected is 
designed by the Lord to do you good. If the joys you are 
prone to prize more than righteousness' die out of your 
hearts, and you are left to groan under burdens of trouble 
and responsibility that well-nigh crush you; if you are 
thrust into paths of duty where danger threatens at every 
step and the cheering manifestation of your Lord's pres- 
ence and favor is withheld, it is only because this exper- 
ience is necessary to your spiritual development. He 
whom you serve knows what trials will most contribute to 
the perfecting of your Christian manhood, and he loves 
you enough to ordain that you shall suffer and to suffer 
with you that you may be perfected in righteousness. 



188 THE DISCIPLES OX THE SEA OF TIBERIAS. 

4. Another fact on the divine side of our text is to be 
noted. Though the disciples did not know it, the eye of 
their Lord was upon them through all the perils of that 
tempestuous night. He never lost sight of them for one 
moment. In no trough of the sea were they hidden from 
Him; and no wave beat against their little boat that es- 
caped His notice. His vision took in not only their sur- 
roundings but all the experiences through which their 
souls were passing. When fear of death contended against 
the sense of duty in their hearts, He saw the conflict; 
when their loyalty to Him was assaulted by a despair born 
of the apparent impossibility of ever reaching Capernaum, 
He was witness to this inner combat which was more severe 
than that in which their waning physical strength warred 
against wind and wave. They could not see Him ; but He 
saw them : and, after all, this was the one thing of supreme 
consequence to them. So long as they did not pass beyond 
the sphere of His approving knowledge they were as safe 
amidst the fury of that storm at sea as if they had been 
standing by His side upon the shore. 

Be of good cheer all ye tried and tempted disciples of 
Christ. However dense the darkness that comes down 
upon you while in the way of duty; however completely it 
may hide from you the face of God, it can never hide you 
from him. No storm bursts' upon you that he does not see. 
]STo trouble or suffering marks your experience in which 
he does not sympathize. ~No influence or force ever 
touches you that does not bear his commission to do you 
good. It is by his command that you have started on the 
voyage to heaven, and if the wind is dead ahead and blows' 
a gale, commit your safety and success to him and faith- 



THE DISCIPLES ON THE SEA OF TIBERIAS. 



189 



fully toil at the oars. If the waves beat you back, toil on. 
If shipwreck seems inevitable, keep the bow of your boat 
towards the port whither God has bidden you go, and toil 
on. You have nothing else to do . If death comes to you 
in the storm, be sure that it finds you with the oars in 
your hands and your boat headed towards the heavenly 
shores. Never yield to fear. Never despair . Keep a good 
heart and toil on. The eye of your Lord is upon you : and 
while obeying him, whether in sunshine or in darkness, 
whether in storm or in calm, whether in life or in death, 
you are safe. 

5 There is one other fact on the human side of this' his- 
tory that claims attention. When the discipline to which 
Jesus subjected his disciples had accomplished the end He 
purposed, and He went to them, "walking on the water," 
this strange thing happened, they did not know Him, mis- 
took Him for a spirit whose appearance portended their 
death, and they cried out for fear. Strange as this may 
seem it has been repeated times without number in the 
life of God's people. How often, when they were in dan- 
ger and distress', has the Lord come for their deliverance 
"walking upon the water," making that which threatened 
them with destruction the highway by which he came to 
save them, and how often have they, like the disciples, mis- 
taking his coming as ominous of ruin, cried out for fear. 

Your own experience furnishes many facts that are the 
counterpart of what is here written concerning the Lord 
and his disciples. You have been sorely tried by the spir- 
it of impatience it may be. Despite all your efforts to 
overcome this evil spirit it has overcome and humiliated 
you a thousand times; and, in your distress and shame, 
with strong cries and tears, you have besought God to give 



l90 THE DISCIPLES ON THE SEA OF TIBERIAS. 

you deliverance. You hoped that, in answer to your 
prayer, he would say to your stormy passions, "peace be 
Still," and that, obedient to his command, a great calm 
would fall upon your turbulent tempers: or that he would 
so change your surroundings that you would no more be 
tempted to impatience. It did not occur to you that there 
was any other way by which he could appear for your sal- 
vation from this great evil. But to your amazement and 
alarm, he came to you "walking on the water." Instead of 
lessening the tax upon your patience he increased it. Event 
followed event in quick succession that tried your temper 
to the uttermost. Where you had been called upon to 
curb your irritability once occasions' occurred demanding 
this a hundred times; and it seemed to you that your 
prayer to God had been intercepted and answered by the 
enemy of your soul. But, beloved, this was God's own 
answer. Upon the very waves that threatened you with 
shipwreck he came to save you : and, indeed, there was no 
other way by which he could come for this purpose without 
doing violence to the laws of your human nature. For, 
mark you, impatience cannot be cured except through the 
trials by which patience is perfected. 

You have toiled for months and years to cross over the 
wide sea of your infirmities and weaknesses, tempest tossed 
by storms of temptation, and to reach the land of perfect 
holiness and unbroken peace on the other side. But you 
have made little progress. The winds' and waves have 
been too much for you ; and you have prayed to God most 
earnestly for help, hoping that by some signal display of 
the power of grace he would instantly fulfil the desire of 
your heart. But lo: instead of that, troubles and tempta- 



THE DISCIPLES ON THE SEA OF TIBERIAS. 191 

tions have multiplied; disappointment has followed fast 
upon disappointment; afflictions' have filled your days 
with weeping; health has declined; fortune has taken 
wings; friends have forsaken you; and repeating the mis- 
take of the disciples on the sea of Tiberias, you have "cried 
out for fear/ 7 not knowing that, walking on these troubled 
waters, your Lord was bringing you a greater salvation than 
that for which you prayed. 

In substance this has been the experience of us all. We 
ask God for purity, and he gives us pain. We ask for sanc- 
tity and He sends us suffering. We ask to be made Christ- 
like, and he nails us to the cross. We ask for heavenly 
mindedness, and our most cherished earthly hopes are 
blighted, and our dearest earthly joys die; and we are filled 
with fear. It is hard for us to recognize our Lord when 
he comes to us "walking on the water"; to see his' love in 
the chastenings that manifest it; to realize that the pains 
of crucifixion issue in the joys of crowned holiness. 

6. When Jesus saw the terror with which his disciples 
were smitten by his approach he "straightway spake unto 
them, saying, Be not afraid, it is I: and they willingly re- 
ceived him into the ship, and immediately the ship was at 
the land whither they went," 

They had showed their devotion to him and, at the right 
time, he proved his love to them. Their strength was ex- 
hausted. The raging of the storm was unabated. They 
could do no more . It seemed certain that their ship would 
founder at sea or be beaten to pieces on the rocks. Then 
Jesus 1 came to them; and his coming was rest and safety 
and joy. Through that long, dismal night there had been 
in their hearts loyalty to Jesus and fidelity to duty that 



I9 2 THE DISCIPLES ON THE SEA OF TIBERIAS. 

never wavered, and now as the result they have the pres- 
ence and favor of their Lord. 

As soon as they received Jesus into the ship, "imme- 
diately the ship was at the land whither they went." What 
their united strength, exerted the whole night long, could 
not accomplish, the power of J esus effected in one moment. 
But far be it from any man to say that their labor was in 
vain. It did not bring them to their desired haven it is 
true; but it did bring to them the saving presence of their 
Lord. Visible good results may not always follow the 
Christian's expenditure of energy in the Master's' service, 
yet his faithfulness keeps him under the wing of the divine 
promise, and secures the guidance of divine wisdom and 
the protection of divine power at all times. 

Of this you may be sure, when all your resources are ex- 
hausted in what seems a vain attempt to do the will of God, 
then success is close at hand; for the hour of your ex- 
tremity will always be the hour of God's opportunity. He 
may sometimes seem to forget you when you are in the 
sorest need; may seem indifferent to your peril when the 
storms of life are fiercest, when danger of shipwreck is 
most imminent, when you have no strength left to breast 
the waves another moment; and then you may be tempted 
to let go the oars and leave the ship to drive upon the rocks. 
But in reality he never forgets you; never loses sight of 
you; never forsakes you. He loves' you with an infinite 
love, and in the hour when his coming will crown you 
with the largest measure of blessedness he will appear for 
your salvation. He may come as heretofore, "walking upon 
the water"; but whether in this way or another, he will as- 
suredly appear when the necessities' of your soul demand 
his presence. 



THE DISCIPLES ON THE SEA OF TIBEEIAS. 193 

In whatever guise He comes, in whatever way He ap- 
proaches, see to it that you recognize and welcome Him; 
for His presence is safety and blessedness. You have many 
times shared with the disciples in the fear that made their 
hearts quake when the Lord came to them "walking on the 
water," see to it that you snare with them in the rest and 
joy they experienced when they realized that it was He and 
willingly received Him into the ship. If He come to you 
"walking upon the water," making disappointment and 
grief the way by which He draws nigh to your hearts, wel- 
come His coming, and ere the tears of sorrow have dried 
upon your cheeks the light of the joy of the great salvation 
you seek shall shine through them 

Seas of trouble must be crossed in your voyage to heaven, 
but land-locked harbors there are around every one of them, 
whose waters repose in perfect peace however fiercely the 
winds may howl without: and sunny banks are there that 
invite the weary to rest amidst their spring grasses and 
sweet-scented flowers. Labor as you may, you shall often 
find it impossible to bring your ship into any of these har- 
bors or to reach these sunny shores. But with whatever 
force the winds and waves may blow and beat against you, 
if, when your Lord comes to you "walking on the water" 
you gladly receive him, immediately your storm tossed bark 
shall glide into some port of peace and land you on the in- 
viting shore for which you have longed and labored 
through weary hours of darkness and danger. 

Or if, as has sometimes been the case with the saintliest 
of his disciples, the Lord wills that you bear the stress of 
the storm, and painfully labor at the oars all your life-long, 
and neither sun nor moon nor star appears day or night, 
and the storm rages without intermission, yet trust God 



194 THE DISCIPLES OX THE SEA OF TIBERIAS. 

and labor on. There may be no haven of rest for your soul 
this side the eternal shore. Your weary hands may be ap- 
pointed to hold the oars' until their grasp relaxes in death. 
If so, fear not; trust God and toil on: that last stroke given, 
as soul and body part, shall bring your ship into that haven 
where are sunnier banks than mortal eyes have ever looked 
upon, and sweeter flowers than ever bloomed in earthly 
soil, and a more peaceful rest than soul of man ever has" 
known here below, and a fulness of blessedness beyond all 
your present dreams of blessedness. Trust God and toil 
on; your destiny is not to be determined by the force of 
winds and waves but by your faithfulness to him who 
rides upon the winds and who holds the waves in the hol- 
low of his hand, and who loves you. 



SEKMON XIII. 



THE ANOINTING OF JESUS. 

"And being in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, as he 
sat at meat, there came a woman having an alabaster box of oint- 
ment of spikenard very precious; and she broke the box, and 
poured it on his head. 

"And there were some that had indignation within themselves, 
and said, Why was this waste of the ointment made? 

"For it might have been sold for more than three hundred 
pence, and have been given to the poor. And they murmured 
against her. 

"And Jesus said, Let her alone; why trouble ye her? She 
hath wrought a good work on me. 

"For ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever ye 
will, ye may do them good; but me ye have not always. 

"She hath done what she could; she is come aforehand to 
anoint my body to the burying. 

"Verily, I say unto you, wheresoever this gospel shall be 
preached, throughout the whole world, this also that she hath 
done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her." St. Mark xiv:3-9. 

Those who condemned Mary for pouring the precious 
ointment upon the head of Jesus saw nothing but the out- 
ward act of anointing; and saw nothing in this but what 
seemed to them an inexcusable waste of what might have 
been devoted to charitable uses. But Jesus saw in this 
anointing an expression of the adoring love that was in 
Mary's heart; and the fragrance of this love filled his di- 
vine soul as the odor of the spikenard filled the room where 
he sat; and he said "she hath done what she could." 



I96 THE ANOINTING OF JESUS. 

He had raised the brother of Mary from the grave. He 
had quickened her own soul with life divine. He had il- 
lumined her spirit with the light of immortality. He had 
revealed himself in her experience as both Lord and Sav- 
iour. As she sat a devout learner at his feet, he had made 
known to her the truth which sanctifies and saves; and she 
loved him with a pure heart fervently. 

Her love had proved itself a better interpreter of his 
words than the keenest intellect among the apostles; and 
she knew what they had refused to believe; that he was 
soon to be crucified. They could not, or would not, under- 
stand his frequent utterances in regard to the fact that he 
was to die for human redemption; but the shadow of his 
coming death rested darkly upon the heart of Mary. Her 
womanly intuitions, quickened by love, had given her an 
insight into the meaning of these utterances that the apos- 
tles did not have, and she could not bear that Jesus should 
go away without first receiving some token of her grateful 
love. It was not possible for her to do any great work for 
His sake. Her sphere was that of a modest Jewish mai- 
den; and she had no opportunity to make any costly sacri- 
fice or perform any heroic deed as an expression of her de- 
votion. But she could take this precious ointment and 
anoint Him aforehand for His burying; and He would un- 
derstand that. It was evident to her that He read the 
thoughts and heard the heart-beats of all who approached 
Him; and He would hear her heart speaking to Him in this 
anointing, saying, "Lord Jesus, my Saviour I love thee, I 
adore thee, I would gladly die to glorify thee; but this is 
all I can do to show how truly I do love thee." These 
thoughts and more were in the heart of Mary; Jesus knew 



THE ANOINTING OF JESUS. 



I97 



it all; and the joy it gave Him was included in what the 
prophet meant when he wrote, "He shall see the travail 
of his soul and shall be satisfied." His loving, self-sacri- 
ficing spirit so often and so cruelly wounded by the hatred 
and reproaches of those whom He came to save was that 
day baptized and refreshed by the overflowing devotion 
of one whom He had saved. The anointing itself was 
nothing to Him; but the holy love it manifested was more" 
precious to Him than we can conceive, and therefore He 
said, "she hath done what she could." 

Than this I find no higher commendation of any person 
in Holy Scripture: no, not of Moses, nor Isaiah, nor St . 
Paul. The lawgiver, the prophet and the apostle wrought 
mighty works, endured many sufferings and made costly 
sacrifices in the service of God ; but I find not that either 
of them was ever so highly approved as was this simple*- 
heiarted, loving woman, on account of this little deed which 
expressed her devout affection for her Lord. "She hath 
done what she could." More than this cannot be said of 
the archangel himself. 

To those who feel no enthusiasm except in the presence 
of the brilliant achievements of genius, or the valorous 
deeds of heroic souls, and who imagine that unobtrusive 
acts of love done by common people are quite insignificant 
in themselves, and altogether beneath the notice of God, it 
seems very strange that J esus should so heartily commend 
tnis lowly woman for this little thing: should embalm her 
memory in the most wonderful words of divine approval 
ever spoken ; should sacredly preserve it in the very gospel 
itself, and ordain that it be held in honor by all generations 



198 



THE ANOINTING OF JESUS. 



of men just because she manifested her love for Him by 
anointing His head with precious ointment. 

But in this fact we have a revelation of the heart of our 
Lord without which the gospel would be incomplete. We 
here learn that it does not require a Moses leading the 
children of Israel out of bondage in Egypt; or a David 
doing kingly deeds in the name of the Most High to win 
the approbation of God: that he does not withhold His 
commendation until some great human soul, illumined 
by the Holy Ghost, pours the light of truth upon an apos- 
tate Church and becomes the master spirit in a glorious 
reformation; but that the heart of Him who is Lord over 
all responds to every act of love that the humblest man or 
woman performs, and that common people, such as you 
and I who can never be kings nor prophets nor apostles, 
enn as truly please Him and be as great in His sight as 
Moses 1 or Isaiah or Paul. 

The record of what this woman did and of our Lord's 
praise of her good work is here in the gospel to teach you 
this lesson, than which there is nothing you more need to 
learn, and nothing the learning of which will more 
strengthen and cheer your hearts. There arc few, if any 
of you, who know how to get the least inspiration for your 
life-work out of the wonderful achievements of apostles' 
and prophets. God's approbation of them gives you no 
encouragement because you cannot hope ever to do the 
works wrought by them. What is the very greatest thing 
yon are capable of doing compared with the deliverance 
of the children of Israel from Egyptian bondage by the 
ministry of Moses? or the deliverance of the Gentiles 
from idolatry by the ministry of Paul? The Lord 



TH3$ ANOINTING OK JESUS. 



199 



was pleased with the great prophet and the great 
apostle; but in the wealth of their natural endow- 
ments, in the glory of their achievements, in the 
arduousness of their labors, in the costliness of their 
sacrifices and the magnificence of their successes, they 
were so far superior to anything you can hope to be or to 
do that you cannot but feel that it would be an exhibition 
of insufferable self-conceit on your part to claim that the 
Lord is as truly pleased with the petty works you perform 
and the petty sacrifices you made in His service as He: was 
with the performances of these heroic and saintly men. 
How can you, whos'e intellectual gifts are comparatively 
so few, whose spiritual attainments are comparatively so 
low, and whose sphere in life is comparatively so narrow, 
ever hope to do anything that shall be honored by God's 
special approbation? 

Such questions have occurred to you often, and have 
discouraged you sadly. In what He s'aid of Mary, Jesus 
answers all questions of this kind, and the answer is full 
of good cheer to every one of us. He commends her as 
He nowhere commends the great prophets or apostles'. 
He speaks of her deed, not great or sublime in itself, but 
done in love, as He no where speaks of their grandest 
achievements and He has her little act of affectionate re- 
gard and His strong word of approval written in the gos- 
pel, and sends the record on down through the ages to 
tell you and all His disciples that the poor and lowly are 
as dear to Him as the greatest kings and heroes, and that 
their works, however insignificant in themselves, if done 
for love of Him, are as highly prized by Him as the most 



200 



THE ANOINTING OF JBSUS. 



celebrated works of the most celebrated men that have 
ever led His hosts to victory. 

In every word He uttered on this occasion, the heart of 
our Lord is making it manifest that love to Him and the 
desire to please Him, entering into any sentence you speak 
or any work you do makes it sacred and sublime forever; 
that whatever is done under the inspiration of love is 
clothed upon with the greatness of that which is the great- 
est thing in the universe; that the same love which alone 
sanctified the labors and sacrifices of apostles and martyrs, 
ruling in your heart, shall sanctify the daily work of the 
most lowly among you; and that, in however little esteem 
you may be held by your fellow men, you can so live as 
to light up with smiles of approval that divine face which 
so long bore for your sake the stamp of suffering, and can 
fill with unspeakable joy that loving heart which broke 
with agony under the burden of your sorrows and sins. 

What a cheering light do these teachings of Jesus let in 
upon the little services' which are all that we can render, 
the little sacrifices which are all that we can offer for His 
sake, the petty trials and duties which so often make our 
lives seem too insignificant to be worth living at all. 
What a halo do they throw around the common place 
things that form so large a part of our history, and which 
because so common, we are used to regarding as so mean. 
How they consecrate and ennoble the life of the least 
gifted among those who love Christ. 

Poetry and art and eloquence have sometimes cele- 
brated the strength of character and true heroism that are 
hid from public gaze in the lives of obscure men, and 
have sought to breathe into the hearts of the poor a just 



THE ANOINTING OF JESUS. 



201 



appreciation of what a loveliness and nobility is possible 
in their history. Little success has attended such efforts. 
Except those of them who have received into their hearts 
the spirit of Christ's teachings, the common people 
have only been able to see that their lives are made up of 
petty cares' and duties with no opportunities for doing 
notable deeds, or attaining the personal development, or 
reaching the positions in church or state to which they as- 
pire. For the most part those among them who reflect 
much, feel that the tread-mill sort of existence to which 
they are doomed shuts them up forever to what is common- 
place and mean. 

But that which poetry and art and eloquence with la- 
borious effort have failed to do, Jesus has accomplished in 
the experience of those who love Him, by saying of a 
humble woman's little work of love, "Verily I say unto 
you, wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout 
the whole world, this also that she hath done shall be 
spoken of for a memorial of her." Here is a small ser- 
vice that any one might have rendered, an unpretentious 
act of devotion done by a modest woman from among the 
common people, which our Lord has embalmed in the 
precious spices of his loving words of commendation, and 
which He has ordained shall be spoken of as a memorial 
of her to the end of time, — an act, not great in itself, yet 
made worthy of its honorable place in Holy Scripture and 
worthy to be had in everlasting remembrance by a love to 
Christ and a desire to please Him, a love and a desire 
which may be in the heart of every one of you every day 
and all the day long, and which may find expression in 
everything you do and everything you say. 
03 



202 



THE ANOINTING OF JESUS. 



But how slow many of you have been to learn this les- 
son. You have imagined that because your lives were 
passed upon a plane so far below that on which the great 
heroes of Scripture lived that it would be folly and pre- 
sumption for you to aspire to a high place in divine esteem. 
You have said within yourselves, If we could only make 
some notable sacrifice, or do some grand, heroic thing in 
the name of the Lord then we might hope to be recognized 
as having contributed somewhat that was worth while to- 
wards the advancement of His cause and be counted 
among the great ones of His kingdom. You have felt 
that you would gladly perform any labor however ardu- 
ous or endure any suffering, or make any sacrifice, if you 
could hereby win the honor that comes from God; forget- 
ting all the while that in His" sight, love is better than the 
most costly sacrifices, better than the grandest achieve- 
ments, better than anything else that men or angels can 
offer on His altar. 

The results of your misconceptions on this subject have 
been disastrous in many ways. For the most part you 
have had no thought of pleasing God in the every day 
duties of life; have been discontented if not rebellious, 
because of the insignificance of the work He has given 
you to do in the world, and have sadly neglected the little 
you might have done to glorify Him because it was so 
little. You have despised the day of small services and 
have robbed your souls of the joy that would have been 
small sacrifices and have robbed your souls of the joy that 
would have been yours and the honor with which your 
Lord would have crowned you if you had been faithful 
over the few things He has given you and diligent in 



THE ANOINTING OF JESUS. 



203 



improving the few opportunities of glorifying His name 
that have been afforded you. 

Your life has flowed on in such narrow channels; it 
has been such a, common kind of life, with nothing you 
could count great ever occurring to ennoble it, that, with 
the thought of pleasing God by your manner of living, 
absent from your hearts, there is no wonder that you have 
felt that your earthly history was hardly worthy of a 
place in Grod's universe. To the housekeepers among 
you, sweeping and dusting, sewing and serving tables, 
have been a monotonous work issuing in naught but wear- 
iness of flesh and depression of spirit. To the mothers 
among you, making your children's clothes, preparing their 
food, nursing them through their sicknesses, correcting 
their faults, guarding them against the perils to health 
and character incident to childhood, while a tax upon your 
love that has nearly always been cheerfully paid, has 
sometimes been felt to be a tax upon your strength and 
patience so exhausting to your physical and spiritual 
forces that life has been to you a burden too heavy to be 
borne. To the wives among you, trying to make home 
attractive to husbands and sons, though sometimes a joyous 
work rewarded by smiles and loving words of praise, has 
often proved a hard and thankless task that brought no 
recompense. To you who are fathers, the daily toil neces- 
ary to the support and comfort of wife and little ones, has 
been labor ill-requited many times. And you who are 
children have found your time taken up with the tiresome 
efforts to learn long, hard lessons, that you could see no use 
in learning at all. And so it has come to pass in the experi- 



204 



THE ANOINTING OF JESL'S. 



ence of nearly all of you, young and old, that your life has 
often seemed scarcely worth living. 

But there is a lesson for you in the text, which, if you 
will but learn it, you will find is the most comforting and 
inspiring lesson that ever entered your mind. What Je- 
sus said of Mary demonstrates the fact that the common- 
est, most humble life of man or woman may not only al- 
ways be tending to something very good and great, but 
may all the time be both sublimely great and good. The 
immeasurable little duties and trials that seem to be con- 
tracting your lives into such a narrow compass; the house- 
keeping demands upon your patience and strength; the 
lowly line of daily toil you are called to follow; the com- 
paratively insignificant kind of religious work in which 
alone you can invest your energies; the so-called trifles that 
engage your time and thought, may all be lifted quite 
above the low level you have permitted them to occupy so 
long, — lifted to as high a place in the estimation of your 
Lord as were the apostolic labors of St. Paul ; and this too, 
not by any mysterious and difficult process, but by simply 
loving the Lord Jesus with a pure heart fervently and try- 
ing to please Him because you love Him. 

Beloved, what you are used to counting greatness is a 
very little thing with Grod ; and what you count petty and 
despise as insignificant may be made glorious in His sight, 
and is glorious in His sight, if the radiance of love shines 
through it. The life of Solomon with all its wealth of 
wisdom and magnificence of achievement and splendors 
of sovereignty was despicable in the judgment of Grod, 
and he smote it with the consciousness of emptiness and 
meanness, because Solomon robbed that life of the spiritual 



THE ANOINTING OF JESUS. 



205 



nobleness and blessedness which only love imparts. It 
was neither the genius, nor the learning, nor the labors, 
nor the successes of Paul that commended him to God, 
but the holy love that glowed in his heart and ennobled 
his whole life. Men call Queen Elizabeth great, but there 
is not a woman in this congregation, whose character and 
conduct are sanctified by divine love, who is not greater 
in God's sight than England's great Elizabeth. The arch- 
angel himself, in the loftiest mission upon which the Lord 
ever sent him forth, never won higher commendation from 
the King of kings than He bestowed upon Mary when the 
fragrance of her love mingled with the sweet odor of the 
precious ointment with which she anointed His head; and 
the life work of the least known Christian here to-day, 
though it win no applause from the world, is fully as sub- 
lime in the sight of God as the life work of any seraph in 
heaven, if the purity and intensity of a seraph's love pos- 
sess that Christian's heart. 

O, my brothers and sisters, think right thoughts of 
God. Kings and emperors on earth, interested only in 
the great deeds of their chief ministers, may be haughtily 
indifferent to the less conspicuous services of the less 
gifted of their subjects. But the King of kings is not 
such as they. The only thing in this universe that is 
really great in His estimation is the fervent love of a pure 
heart; and your love is as precious to Him as that of an 
Elijah or a St. John; and can make your work as glorious 
in His sight as theirs. As little as you sometimes hope for 
it, you may have every day and all the day long the testi- 
mony that you please God, and this you shall find is better 
than all that the world counts greatness. No renown 



206 



THE ANOINTING OF JKSUS. 



ever won by poet or philosopher, by orator or statesman, 
by scholar or soldier is comparable to the distinction con- 
ferred upon a human soul by the approbation of God, and 
if, in your unheralded efforts to do the little good you can, 
you are prompted by supreme love to your Lord and Sav- 
iour, the hour is coming when you shall bear him say of 
you in the presence of all men and angels, "they have done 
what they could;" and this shall be honor enough and 
glory enough and success enough to fill an eternity with 
unspeakable blessedness. 



SERMON XIV. 



THE LOVE OF GOD MANIFESTED IN THE DEATH OF 
CHRIST. 

"But God commendeth his love toward us, in that while we 
were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Romans v:8. 

Whether God is my friend or my foe, whether His heart 
is full of love or flames with wrath towards; me, is the most 
momentous questions that can engage my thought. It 
involves all of my highest interests for both this world 
and the world to come. What I accept as the true an- 
swer to this question cannot but have a controlling influ- 
ence upon the development of my character and so upon 
my eternal destiny. If I believe that God is' my enemy; 
that He means me evil and not good, I shall yield myself 
to a despair that renders the attainment of a holy character 
impossible; or I shall harden my heart against him, defy 
His authority, burden my conscience with the guilt of pre- 
sumptuous sins and doom myself to wretchedness and ruin. 
On the other hand, if I believe that God loves me ; that He 
is tenderly solicitous for my good and intent upon deliver- 
ing me from evil, I shall have in this faith the strongest 
possible restraint upon the sinward tendencies of my 
nature, and the strongest possible incentive to the achieve- 
ment of holiness. So much is involved in this question 
that I cannot afford to be in doubt concerning it. Merely 
to be uncertain as to whether God loves me, is' to be with- 
out a sufficient defense against the assaults of temptation, 
without consolation in time of sorrow, without a single 



208 



LOVE OF GOD MANIFESTED. 



motive to live piously, and without any foundation on 
which to build a holy character. 

There is nothing that men so much need to know as that 
God loves them; and yet, outside of Holy Scripture, there 
is no voice that testifies to His love for them, whose testi- 
mony is not impeached by that of some other voice, equally 
clear in its tones, and equally emphatic in its announce- 
ments. The testimony of nature on this subject, it is dif- 
ficult, if not impossible, to interpret. What sunshine 
seems to attest, darkness and storms seem to deny. "What 
the firm and fertile earth seems to make sure, the desert 
and the earth-quake seem to disprove. If there are flow- 
ers that refresh us with their fragrance, there are quite as 
many thorns that pierce and hurt us. If there are luscious 
fruits that nourish, there are poisonous that kill. If there 
are gentle, balmy breezes that it is a pleasure to feel play- 
ing upon our faces, there are terrible tornadoes that leave 
desolation and death everywhere in their track. If there 
are animals that faithfully serve us, and seem to have been 
created to minister to our comf ort, there are venomous rep- 
tiles whose bite is fatal and ravenous beasts that were evi- 
dently created to tear and to slay. We cannot learn from 
nature whether God loves us: and the testimony of provi- 
dence on this subject is equally difficult of interpretation. 
If providence gives us plentiful harvests and the health to 
enjoy them; no less does it send droughts that burn up or 
floods that drown our crops, and sickness to prey upon our 
bodies. If providence brightens our path with many and 
great blessings, it also darkens our way by the shadow of 
great calamities. If providence makes home happy by the 
ministry of domestic loves; it converts these very loves into 



LOVE OF GOD MANIFESTED. 



209 



the source of heart-breaking sorrows. If nature and prov- 
idence sometimes seem to unite in declaring that God loves 
us, there are times when they seem to unite in declaring 
that He is our pitiless enemy; and, left to interpret their 
testimony by the light of reason alone, we can never learn 
from them the truth of God's' love for us. 

The facts of our own eonsciusness are such as render 
this truth well-nigh incredible. Alas! by nature we do 
not love God. Our hearts are alienated from Him. We 
have resisted His Spirit. We have broken His command- 
ments. We have become His enemies by wicked 
works. Our conscience charges us with having done a 
thousand things to provoke His wrath. How can He, im- 
maculately pure, absolutely holy, who loathes sin: who«e 
wrath against sin burns to the deepest hell and burns inex- 
tinguishably, love us who have been committing sin all 
our lives? How can He, the essential principles of whose 
character are embodied in His holy law, love us who have 
habitually trampled that law under our unhallowed feet? 
We are sinners, and the consciousness of guilt inclines us 
to accept as true the testimony of any voice which affirms 
that God regards us no otherwise than with wrath and in- 
dignation. Storms and pestilences, disappointments and 
bereavements, sickness and sorrw, pain and death, a thous- 
and witnesses speaking to us in the facts of history and ex- 
perience are saying that God takes pleasure in seeing us 
suffer; and our own sins', another great cloud of witnesses, 
charge us not to believe that He loves us; that it would be 
presumptuous for such transgressors as we to think it pos- 
sible for Him to love us. 



210 



LOVE OF GOD MANIFESTED. 



Neither ironi nature, nor providence, nor the facts' of 
oui own consciousness does the light of the love of God 
shine into our hearts. "But God commendeth His love 
towards us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died 
for us." It is with the proof of God's love for us fur- 
nished in the death of Christ that I desire to engage your 
thought. 

Of course the strength of this proof depends upon the 
real relation of Christ to the heavenly Father. If He was 
only a man, though the wisest, the best, the one perfect 
man that has ever lived, as Socinians teach; or if He was 
the first of God's creatures, superior to the archangels, but 
only a creature, as the Arians teach, then, while His dying 
for us by divine appointment would indicate a degree of 
interest in our well-being, it would be no very satisfactory 
proof of the heavenly Father's love. 

But in the gospel Christ is' declared to be the Son of 
God, His "only begotten Son," His Son, that is, in a sense 
that no man or angel or other creature ever was or can be. 
He was "begotten," not made ; He is God of God, Light of 
light, very and true God, one with the Father, who, from 
all eternity has been in the bosom of the Father. This, 
His own Son, God gave to die for our redemption. If 
the gospel which proclaims this gift is not true, then we 
are remanded to the teaching of observation and experi- 
ence, teaching which as to the fact of divine law, cannot 
be satisfactorily interpreted by the wisest, and cannot in- 
spire confidence in the hearts of the most hopeful. But, if 
it be true that the Father sent His only begotten Son into 
the world to be the propitiation for our sins, to suffer and 
die that we might not perish, He has herein given a dem- 



LOVE OF GOD MANIFESTED. 



211 



onstration of His' love for us, that makes doubt a sin and 
despair a crime. If God spared not His own Son, but de- 
livered Him up to agony and death for us all, then it is ab- 
solutely certain that He loves us. The voices of nature 
and providence that attempt to utter the truth of divine 
love may be drowned by other voices from the same 
sources that contradict their testimony; but the voice that 
comes forth from the lips' of the wounds of the Son of God 
bleeding for a world's redemption articulates 1 clearly and 
sounds out above the din of all conflicting testimony, pro- 
claiming to every child of Adam the blessed truth of God's 
love for Him. Whatever may be the meaning of famines 
and pestilences, of grief and pain, the meaning of the vicar- 
ous sufferings and sacrificial death of Christ, if indeed He 
is the Son of God, is unmistakable, "Herein is love," the 
love of God for us; love that no voice of nature could utter; 
that no language could tell; that could find no adequate ex- 
pression but in the gift of God's own Son for our redemp- 
tion. 

But is Christ not merely a Son of God, a son in the same 
sense that Adam was and that an angel is, but the Son of 
God; the Son in such a sense that in essential nature and 
glory He is one with the Father? Unquestionably, He 
claimed this for Himself, and attested the truth of the 
claim by miracles that nothing less' than divine power 
could have wrought. He gave sight to men born blind; 
healed the leper; cast out devils; raised the dead to life; 
and was declared to be the Son of God with power by His 
own resurrection from the dead. 

It is true that now that so many centuries have elapsed 
since these miracles' were performed, that the evidence of 



212 



LOVE OF GOD MANIFESTED. 



the divine sonship of Jesus furnished by them labors under 
this very great disadvantage, before it can have its due 
weight it must first be proven that any such evidence was 
ever given ; that any such miracles were ever wrought. And, 
while the proof is forthcoming, and while, as the greatest 
minds among men have acknowledged, is conclusive, yet 
I am glad that Jesus can claim your faith in His divine 
Sonship on other grounds, as strong, if not stronger, than 
the fact that He wrought miracles when here upon the 
earth. He comes to you with the cumulative proof that 
He is the Son of God furnished in the quickening, sancti- 
fying, saving miracles that He has been working, through 
nineteen centuries in the experience of countless millions 
of our race, and still is working. If you had been present 
in the little boat tempest-tossed and filling with water on 
the sea of Galilee, and had witnessed the instant obedience 
of raging winds and waves, when He said, "peace be still;" 
if you had seen Him heal all manner of sicknesses by the 
word of His power and feed five thousand hungry men by 
the miraculous multiplication of a few barley loaves, you 
would have believed that he was the Son of God. But what 
were these wonderful works' compared with such a miracle 
as this of w r hich you yourselves are witnesses — this Jesus, 
who, if he was not the Son of God, was a Galilean peasant 
who never learned letters, who was despised by the leaders 
of thought among his own people, who was crucified in a 
remote province of the Roman empire, dying the death re- 
served for the punishment of slaves when only thirty-three 
years of age, leaving on record not a single written sen- 
tence, mastering the mind and heart, moulding the civili- 
zation and dictating the religion of the ruling nations of 



EOVE OF GOD MANIFESTED. 



213 



the earth nineteen hundred years after his death? If you 
had seen him raise the dead to life, you would have believed 
that he was the Son of God. But you have seen what is 
equally strong proof of His divine Sonship, — the resurrec- 
tion of myriads of men from the death of sin to the life 
of righteousness, a resurrection wrought by the power of 
the name of the crucified Jesus. If you had been present 
that Sunday morning when the angel descended and rolled 
away the stone from the mouth of the sepulchre, and had 
seen Him after He had been three days dead, by His own 
inherent power break the bands of death and come forth 
alive, you would have known that He was the Son of God. 
You have seen what just as truly demonstrates His divine 
Sonship. Since some of you were born He has raised more 
than two millions of the most degraded heathen that ever 
polluted the earth by their brutalities; raised them from 
the lowest depths of beastliness' to a noble Christian man- 
hood, to a pure Christian womanhood, that reflects the very 
glory of God. 

I know not how it may be with others but I am free to 
say for myself that all the wonderful works of Jesus re- 
corded in the gospels do not more profoundly impress me 
with the truth of His divinity than such facts as these : He, 
who, unless He is God's own Son, was the son of a carpen- 
ter, who grew to manhood in the workshop of a mechanic, un- 
educated, in close association all His life with none but the 
ignorant and poor, who died young, and died upon a cross, 
projecting upon the world from that cross an influence that 
enthrones Him in the hearts of ever increasing millions; 
that enters Him into the consciousness of the greatest as of 
the feeblest souls as the power of God unto salvation ; that 



214 



LOVE OF GOD MANIFESTED. 



ennobles the most debased; that sanctifies the most sinful, 
and that binds to His person in a love stronger than death, 
not only the multitudes unknown to fame, but such chief- 
tains as Washington and Jackson and Lee, such philoso- 
phers as Newton and Cousin, such statesmen as Gladstone 
and Bismark, such orators as Burke and Bright, such poets 
as Milton and Dante; such kings of men as Cromwell and 
the Prince of Orange, the pierced hands of the crucified 
Jesus grasped the religious destinies' of the world when they 
were nailed to the cross; firmly hold them till this day and 
promise to hold them forever. The spirit of the crucified 
Jesus touching the hearts and consciences of men through 
His sufferings and death is the mightiest spiritual power on 
earth ; and it is working miracles of salvation in Europe and 
America; in Asia and Africa and in the islands of the 
sea. The pages of the past and the current history of the 
world is luminous with the proofs of the divine Sonship of 
Jesus; and the majestic march of his providence and grace 
is bringing nigh the day when every knee shall bow to 
Him and every tongue shall confess that He is Lord to the 
glory of the Father. 

Jesus Christ is God's own Son, His "only begotten Son," 
who, from all eternity has been in the bosom of the 
Father; between whom and the Father from the everlast- 
ing ages there have been the flowing and the refulgence of 
the infinite tide of the love of Godhead, whose overflow 
constitutes in all their sweetness and strength the loves of 
men and the loves of angels. And God so loved us that He 
sent this, His own Son into the world to be the propitia- 
tion for our sins; delivered him up to unspeakable agony 



LOVE OF GOD MANIFESTED. 



215 



of spirit and death upon the cross that we might not perish 
but have everlasting life. 

It would be presumptuous in any one to attempt to lift 
the veil with which the silence of Holy Scripture has hid- 
den the heart of the Father in this transaction and essay 
to tell in human speech what of divine sacrifice on the 
part of the Father was involved in the gift of His Son to 
die for us. But we must not rob the sacrifice made by the 
Father of all reality as a sacrifice by putting the false God 
of human philosophy in the place of the true God of the 
Bible, substituting our gracious, loving Father in heaven 
by a cold, impassable, infinite intellect that coldly plans 
human salvation, and without any consciousness of sacri- 
fice surrenders the Eternal Son to the anguish and shame- 
ful death that this plan involved. If it was the infinite 
mind of God that devised the plan it was the great, lov- 
ing heart of God that paid down the price. And while 
we dare not attempt to penetrate the arcana of the Fath- 
er's heart; or, by the shallow line of our love, presume to 
fathom the depths of the sacrifice made by his love when 
He delivered up His Son to die for us; or even to put into 
words our conceptions of what that sacrifice was, yet we 
cannot afford to forget that in His heart centered all the 
tenderness and intensity of the perfect love of perfect 
Fatherhood; and that in the embrace of this love the Son 
whom He sent to be the propitiation for our sins had been 
held from all eternity. Knowing all that awaited His be- 
loved Son in the mission of mercy on which he was sent; 
all the poverty and pain; the sacrifice and suffering; the 
abysmal depths of humiliation ; the unutterable agony and 
the shameful death; knowing all, the Father spared not 



216 



LOVE OF GOD MANIFESTED. 



His own Son but delivered Him up for us all. A gift 
more expressive of love, or expressive of greater love it 
was not in the power of God to bestow upon us. 

You are to take special note of this fact, — it was the 
Father's love for us that was manifested in the death of 
Christ. This is expressly affirmed in the text, and is the 
uniform teaching of Holy Scripture. Notwithstanding 
this fact you often hear statements from members of the 
church and ministers of the gospel that represent the 
Father as burning with wrathful indignation against us, 
and hardly held back from consuming us in fires of ven- 
geance by the interposition of the Son. This is a horrible 
blasphemy against the heart of God. There was not en- 
mity to us in the Father and love in the Son, the one coun- 
terworked by the other. There was love in the heart of the 
Father for us which sent the Son to be the propitiation for 
our sins; and love in the heart of the Son, which brought 
Him down from heaven to earth to redeem us ; love in the 
heart of the Father and love in the heart of the Son meet- 
ing and blending in the one undivided heart of Godhead; 
and from thence, through the redemption that is by 
Christ, pouring its treasures of grace and salvation and 
eternal life into the souls of men. When the life of Jesus 
has fully revealed the infinite riches of His love for the 
children of men, then He says, "I and my Father are one." 
When that wonderful life of Jesus, so spotless in its' sanc- 
tity, and yet so gracious in all its dealings with sinners ; so 
majestic in its righteousness, and yet so tenderly compas- 
sionate in all its relations to the depraved and guilty: when 
tnat wonderful life of Jesus in which all divine perfections 
joined to save our lost race, is drawing to its close in a sac- 



LOVE OF GOD MANIFESTED. 



217 



riiicial death that unveils the holy of holies of His' divine 
heart and shows us infinite love enshrined there, then He 
declares, (O that God may help us to believe it!), "He 
that hath seen me, hath seen the Father also. He that hath 
beheld my gentleness and grace and tender mercy and un- 
speakable love, hath looked into the very heart of God. 

Jesus, the only begotten Son, is sent forth out of the 
heart of the Father to reveal to us what is in the Father's 
heart; and the message He brings to earth; the message 
uttered in every word, breathed in every sigh, wept in ev- 
ery tear; and, lest one should fail to understand, or fear to 
believe it, proclaimed at last by the outpouring of His 
blood, a sacrifice for our sins, is this: Children of men, 
God, loves you, God does most truly love you, and He sends 
me His own Son, to live for you, to die for you, and in life 
and death to bear witness to the truth that, sinful and guilty 
as you are, He loves you with an infinite and everlasting 
love. "Herein is love not that we loved God, but that He 
loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our 
sins." 

You are to note the further fact, that this manifestation 
of God's love for us was called forth by our sinfulness and 
consequent peril. It was the outpouring in redemptive 
processes of God's love towards sinners. This fact sweeps 
away the last refuge of unbelief, and leaves us without ex- 
cuse if we close our hearts against the inshining light of 
God's love. It is because we are consciously sinful and 
guilty that it seems incredible that God either does or can 
love us, but it was expressly for the redemption of sinners 
that He sent His Son to suffer and die. So far, therefore, 
from the fact of our sinfulness disproving the truth that 

(14) 



218 



LOVE OF GOD MANIFESTED. 



God loves us, it is that alone that authorizes us to count our- 
selves among those to whom His love has been manifested 
in Christ. "God commendeth His love toward us, in that 
while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." 

The cross on which Jesus died that you might live pro- 
claims to every one of you the glorious gospel of God's 
love for your soul. However many or heinous your sins, 
however unworthy of divine favor you are and feel your- 
selves to be, the holy God, the righteous Father, loves 
you. Do your sins and sorrows force you to stand before 
this truth in the attitude of doubt? Then let me lead you 
to places and into the midst of scenes where no shadow 
of doubt can obscure the brightness of its shining. Stand 
awhile upon the little hill just outside the walls of Jeru- 
salem ; look down the dusty highway towards 5 the city ; be- 
hold one comes hither bearing a cross, followed by a hoot- 
ing multitude; His brow is pierced and bleeding; His face, 
though majestic, is marred by grief; though grander in His 
humiliation than Solomon in all his glory, He bends and 
falls beneath the weight of the cross He bears. This is He, 
of whom it is written, "God sent His Son to be the propi- 
tiation for our sins." Behold ! they nail Him to the cross, 
and raise Him between heaven and earth. Upon His face 
there is an expression of deepening agony that never was 
on human face before, and never has been since. It is not 
the pain of crucifixion that so mars His face; it is an 
anguish that is beyond all degrees of physical suffering. 
The burden of the sins and guilt of a world of sinners is 
upon His soul; and under the intolerable pressure of that 
awful burden, His heart is breaking. Stand here beneath 
His cross, and while His blood wets the earth at your feet, 



LOVE OE GOD MANIFESTED. 



219 



and the distant hills of Judea echo out that cry of more 
than mortal agony that tells that His heart has bnrst in sun- 
der, read, "He is wounded for our transgressions, He is 
bruised for our iniquities ; the chastisement of our peace is 
upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed." Crying, 
"it is finished," He bows His head and gives up the ghost. 
In crimson lines, f ollowing the grain of the wood, His blood 
trickles down to the ground, or hangs in pendent clots from 
His pierced hands and feet. His broken body from which 
the life has gone out through five bleeding wounds, hangs 
there upon the cross. Behold, and read His own words, 
"This is my body which is given for you; this is my blood 
which is shed for you and for many for the remission of 
sins." Lovingly and reverently His few friends' take His 
body down from the cross, and, wrapping it in a linen cloth, 
bear it to the tomb. Stand here, and before they roll the 
stone to the mouth of the sepulchre, in sight of that cru- 
cified body read, "God spared not His own Son, but deliv- 
ered Him up for us all." Men and brethren, God loves 
you ; he loves you every one. If the afflictions of life ever 
shut out the light of this truth from your hearts; if the 
consciousness of sinfulness and guilt ever shrouds this 
precious light in the darkness of despair, then look to the 
cross of Christ and you shall see its blessed beams shining 
from thence and shining forever to cheer and comfort and 
save. 

Were it given me to stamp indelibly upon the minds and 
hearts of my fellow men any one truth of revelation, I 
would choose that it be this one, above all others, God 
loves you; He does most truly love you. Hold fast to this 
truth. It is the central truth of the gospel. Jesus died 



220 



LOVE OF GOD MANIFESTED. 



to make it known. Your salvation and eternal life are 
bound up in your believing it. It is the ground of faith, 
and the inspiration of hope. God loves you. Hold fast 
to this truth. It guarantees your soul all needed divine 
grace and strength and guidance. The power of a new, 
holy, useful and blessed life for every one of you is yours 
through implicit trust in it. No better thing can you de- 
sire than that under its influence your character daily 
ripens for heaven; that in time of temptation its sacred 
restraints be laid upon your wrong tendencies; that, when 
sorely taxed by the demands of duty, its inspiration may 
strengthen you ; that, when the shadows of disappointment 
and grief darken your way, its radiance may make sun- 
shine in your hearts; that when you go down into the val- 
ley of death your way may be illumined by the bright- 
ness of its shining; and that, throughout eternity, you may 
b've and rejoice in that city which has no need of the sun 
or moon or stars to shine in it, because the radiance of 
that love which is the glory of God doth lighten it, and 
because the Lamb who is the perfect manifestation of the 
infinite love of God, is the evelasting light thereof. 



SERMON XV. 



PRAYER IN AFFLICTION. 

"Is any among you afflicted? Let him pray." St. James v:13. 

In some form, affliction comes upon every human be- 
ing. No man has lived on earth who never knew disap- 
pointment and trouble. The flowers bloom and the birds 
sing while the summer lasts; but winter comes and the 
flowers fade and the songs of the birds are hushed. The 
sun shines brightly and the winds blow softly for many 
days, but then the clouds gather, and the light of the sun 
is darkened and the gentle breeze is succeeded by the roar 
of the tornado. Gay processions march along the streets' 
with music and banners and shoutings to-day, but on to- 
morrrow the funeral procession shall follow in the same 
steps and the bitter tears of the broken-hearted shall fall in 
the footprints of them who now sing in gladness. "Truly 
the light is sweet ; and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes 
to behold the sun; but, if a man live many days and rejoice 
in them all, yet let him remember the days of darkness, 
for they shall be many." 

Through every door of sensation, of hope, of desire, of 
love, affliction breaks in upon the heart of man. There 
is no way to guard oneself against its assaults. Its arrows 
pierce the joints of any harness that human skill can fash- 
ion. It cannot be bribed with gold, or awed by power. 
It cannot be eluded in the palaces of kings, or in the hut 
of the pauper. There is no home on earth that it has not 



222 



PEAYEE IN AFFLICTION. 



visited, and no heart of man or woman in which it is not a 
frequent guest. 

There is no need that I ask, "Is any among you afflict- 
ed V for no congregation ever assembled that did not 
include children of sorrow. Even in this assembly are 
those who have experienced, some in one form, some in 
another, almost every kind of trouble. Here are those 
whose dearest hopes have been blighted and whose dearest 
friends have gone down to the grave; those who have been 
reduced from affluence to poverty, and who daily stand 
face to face with want; those who mourn the moral wreck 
of loved ones for whom they could have died, and those 
whose future is shrouded in such gloom that they can not 
think of it except with forebodings that are harder to bear 
than any actual suffering. 

You have all made acquaintance with grief. Affliction 
has had a large place in the experience of every one of you ; 
and there is no probability that the future will be different 
in this respect from the past. All hope of uninterrupted 
happiness in this world is delusive. Time, which promises 
the cure of present wounds will inflict others, and perhaps 
deeper. The storms that beat fiercely upon you now shall 
pass by and the sunshine shall gladden you once more ; but 
the clouds shall gather again, and the storm shall rush upon 
you with renewed fury. The tears that wet your cheeks 
now shall be succeeded by smiles, but the smiles shall give 
way to tears again. "Man is born to trouble as the sparks 
fly upward." 

Any philosophy of human life, or any religion offered to 
men, that ignores the fact of affliction, or fails to prescribe 
some method by which to lighten the burden of trouble or 



PRAYER IN AFFLICTION. 



223 



strengthen the heart to bear it; is fatally defective. We 
need help in respect to the sufferings and sorrows of life. 
This need has been felt in all ages, and the philosophers of 
all times' have endeavored to supply it. In one particular, 
they are unanimously in accord with Holy Scripture on this 
subject. Without exception, they earnestly warn us 
against the spirit of despair and the spirit of defiance. 
They tell us, and most truly, that we only make the burdens 
of life heavier by brooding over them in hopeless grief, 
and that we madly set ourselves in antagonism to a power 
that is irresistible when we become defiant. It is cow- 
ardice to despair, it is madness to defy. In what spirit 
then shall we bear the afflictions of life ? 

Philosophy has found only two answers to this question. 
The first is, look on the bright side, hope for better days, 
and, in anticipating future gladness, forget, as far as you 
can, the present sorrow. There is true wisdom in this 
answer. It implies that there is an element of good in 
every evil; a trace of sweetness in the bitterest cup; some- 
thing to cheer in the darkest hour, and that it is best, in 
every way, that we seek for whatever of goodness and 
sweetness and brightness belongs to our lot, and dwell in 
thought upon this rather than upon what is dark, or bitter, 
or evil. 

This answer of philosophy implies further, that the evils 
of the present life are temporary. "Weeping may endure 
for a night, but joy oometh in the morning." Whatever 
the trouble that afflicts us, it cannot last forever, and it is 
the office of wisdom to use the hands of hope in drawing 
drafts upon the future good for strength to bear the present 
ill. 



224 



PEAYEE I2s T AFFLICTION. 



For those who can f ollow the course suggested by philos- 
ophy it is perhaps the best that the wisdom of man can point 

uiu. Every one is the better for looking on the bright side 
and being hopeful. There is a silver lining to every cloud, 
reminding us that the sun, though obscured, is still shining, 
and we shall pass through the shadow and the gloom much 
more cheerfully if we fix our eye upon the bright edges 
rather than upon the black center of the cloud that over- 
hangs us. We are always safer and happier when Ave hope 
than when we despair. 

But while this is true, it is truth of which, under some 
circumstances the most hopeful can make no use. There 
are troubles, the end of which they cannot see, and evils 
in which, looks as they may, they can discover no possi- 
ble good. They would gladly behold the bright side, but 
alas! when the clouds that overshadow them cover the 
whole horizon, the bright side is beyond the range of 
their vision. And there are many persons who are 
constitutionally blind to the silver lining that tells of 
the presence of the sun behind the cloud. They cannot, 
profit by the counsel of philosophy upon which we are 
commenting even when their days are least darkened by 
trouble; and there are nights of grief, whose darkness is 
so dense, that no one can profit by it. 

But philosophy has recommended one other course with 
reference to affliction. It counsels men to steel their 
hearts against the strokes of sorrow; to harden themselve-s 
until they become insensible to grief, — to be Stoics. 
This means, murder your hearts, destroy your affectional 
nature, annihilate your emotions, put away out of your 
souls all desire, all aspiration, all love. Were this possi- 



PRAYER IN AFFLICTION. 



225 



ble men would find the process of murdering the heart 
more painful than any sorrow the living heart ever en- 
dures. Even were this not so, it would still be true that, 
it is better to have a heart that suffers than to have one 
so hardened and dead that it is incapable of suffering. 
But the course advised is impracticable. You cannot 
ever cease to hope and to love; and, therefore, you can- 
not ever cease to feel the smitings of disappointment and 
bereavement. Men have been Stoics by profession and 
Stoics in appearance, but no man ever was a Stoic in fact. 
The heart of man cannot be destroyed, except by the 
destruction of man himself. 

Our text prescribes an entirely different course from 
any that is' commended by philosophy. "Is any among 
you afflicted? let him pray." Philosophy bids you de- 
pend upon yourself. Revelation bids you take all your 
burdens of grief to your heavenly Father in prayer. The 
counsel given by philosophy assumes that you are suffi- 
cient unto yourself, that there is" latent in you the power 
to bear cheerfully, or to ignore 1 , all kinds of trouble, and 
that you only need to know and to use your own resources 
to pass unscathed through any fires of affliction. The words 
of revelation imply that you are not sufficient unto your- 
self ; that you have not strength to bear affliction as it ought 
to be borne; that you need divine help, divine support and 
consolation, which can be had only in answer to prayer. 

That this is the truth has been demonstrated by the 
experience of men in all ages. The teachings of philoso- 
phy are of little value when all the waves and billows of 
grief are going over one's soul. Counsel which a man 
thinks most excellent when he is prosperous and happy 



226 



PRAY EE IN AFFLICTION. 



and which he imagines the afflicted can easily follow, and 
in f ollowing which, he is sure they will be thoroughly con- 
soled, he finds, when trouble comes home to his own heart, 
avails him nothing. To the man of philosophizing ten- 
dencies it is an easy thing to sit in his comfortable chair 
and work out beautiful theories for the comfort of the af- 
flicted, but when he is forced to exchange that comfortable 
chair for Job's seat in the ashes; when his own hopes 
wither, and his loved ones die and his heart is like to 
break, then he learns that the theory he thought a healing 
balm for all heart-wounds is a bitter mockery of human 
weakness and woe. It is natural enough for one whose 
cup has no bitter mingled with the sweet ; upon whom the 
sun of prosperity shines the whole day long, to say to the 
afflicted, be cheerful, look on the bright side, hope for bet- 
ter days; but when the sun darkens in his own sky, and 
the bitter is infused into his own cup, and his 
own heart is smitten through with grief, he finds that to be 
cheerful and hopeful himself in the day of trouble is in- 
finitely more difficult than he imagined when he was giv- 
ing counsel to others. 

St. James knew from sore experience that it is the vain- 
est of all vain things for an afflicted man to look to his own 
resources for consolation ; and he bids you in time of trou- 
ble to call upon the Lord for the strength and comfort you 
need. "Is any among you afflicted ? Let him pray." 
The heavenly Father is a very present help in trouble . 
He is the God of all comfort. His heai*t yearns* over you 
in compassion. His ear is open to your cry, and he is 
able to console you in any affliction. Therefore, O af- 
flicted man, pray! 



PKAYER m AFFLICTION. 



227 



The apostle here counsels prayer with reference to all 
kinds of trouble. Is any man afflicted by disease, by fail- 
ure in business, by loss of reputation, by the bad conduct 
or death of those he loves, "let him pray." The too com- 
mon practice among us is to shut God out altogether from 
the troubles that belong to what is called the secular side 
of life. If disaster happens to our business interests ; if the 
political condition of the country fills us with anxiety; if 
enemies slander, or friends desert us, we seem to think 
that it would be a kind of profanation of prayer to intro- 
duce into it any reference to the distress that results from 
these things. There are many of us as comfortless under 
afflictions that come from these sources as if we had no 
religion and no God. All this is wrong in itself, and 
deplorable in its results. We are taught in Holy Scrip- 
ture, not only to cast our care upon the Lord, but to "cast 
all our cares" upon Him ; not only to seek distinctively spir- 
itual blessings at His hands, but "in every thing, by 
prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving to make 
known to him our requests'." 

There is no wisdom in restraining prayer and so shut- 
ting out from your hearts all divine consolation, when the 
common, everyday troubles of life weigh heavy upon your 
hearts; and you have done this quite long enough. In 
trying to bear these troubles' independently of divine help, 
you have almost banished God from what is the greater 
part of your heart-history. You are none the better, but 
the worse in every way for that voluntary humility and 
false reverence which have made you imagine that your 
heavenly Father cares for none of these things, and will 
not listen to prayers' inspired by distresses of this kind. 



228 



PRAYER IN AFFLICTION. 



You need to enter into the spirit of these words of Jesus — 
"The very hairs of your head are all numbered." You 
need to learn more of the sympathy of that divine heart 
which once beat in a human breast and knew all forms of 
human trouble. You need to realize more fully that one- 
ness' of your Lord and His disciples which makes it liter- 
ally true that in all their afflictions He is afflicted. 

During His life on earth He showed Himself tenderly 
compassionate towards all kinds of distress. It would not 
have been surprising if He to whom was committed the 
work of saving a world of sinners from eternal death, had, 
while engaged in that work paid no heed to their merely 
physical ills. But He healed the sick, gave sight to the 
blind, was moved with compassion by the hunger of the 
multitude that waited upon His ministry and wrought a 
miracle to supply them with bread. Trouble, simply as 
trouble, always appealed to His sympathies', when He was 
here in the flesh; and "He is the same, yesterday, to-day 
and forever." Therefore, if any among you is afflicted, 
let him pray. Whatever the source or nat ure of you r af- 
flictions you need divine help so to bear them that they 
may do you good rather than harm; and you are author- 
ized to seek and expect that help. With all simplicity 
and directness and trustfulness, lay before God the anx- 
ieties and cares and griefs of your heart. If you are af- 
flicted by the death, or misconduct, or sorrows, of those 
you love, tell it to your Father in heaven. If enemies 
slander, or friends forsake you, tell it to your Father in 
heaven. If you are sick, and all means of support have 
failed you, and you are in want of daily bread, tell it to 
your Father in heaven. Whatever your trouble, you may 



PKAYER m AFFLICTION. 



229 



confidently expect that your God and Saviour will syn> 
pathize with you and help you. 

One of two answers is always given to the importunate, 
believing prayer of the afflicted. Either God delivers 
them out of their distresses, or ministers grace to them 
by which their hearts are so strengthened and cheered 
that they are brought into that harmony with the divine 
will which transforms affliction into a blessing. 

There is no kind of trouble from which the people of God 
have not been delivered in answer to prayer. When the 
children of Israel cried unto the Lord in their hard bond- 
age in Egypt, he appeared unto Mos'es and said, "I have 
seen the affliction of my people in Egypt and their cry 
have I heard, for I know their sorrows, and am come to de- 
liver them." In answer to prayer, Hezekiah, sick unto 
death, was restored to health, and fifteen years added to 
his life. In answer to prayer, Daniel was saved from the 
jaws of the lions. In answer to prayer Peter was released 
from bonds and imprisonment. In answer to prayer, the 
hungry have been fed, the blind have received their sight, 
the leper has been cleansed, the simple have been made 
wise and the weak have been endued with strength. 

While God does not always answer the prayer of the 
afflicted by delivering them out of their distresses, yet the 
instances 1 in which He has so answered are sufficiently 
numerous to justify you, whenever in trouble, in praying 
for divine interposition on your behalf. There are those in 
this congregation, I doubt not, who have carried burdens 
upon their hearts for many years, from which the prayer 
of faith would long ago have given them relief. "Ye 
have not," writes St. J ames, "because ye ask not." 



230 



PKAYEB IN AFFLICTION. 



While prayer does not always secure deliverance from 
affliction, it never fails to secure such measures of grace 
as are better than deliverance. Freedom from suffering 
and sorrow is not the best thing God has to bestow upon 
them who suffer and sorrow. A life spent without afflic- 
tion but spent out of harmony with God's will is not the 
kind of life that any wise man would choose for himself; 
and it is probable that if we were free from all heart-aches 
on earth, every one of us would forget God, die in sin and 
perish forever. There are chastisements whose fruit is 
infinitely better than ease and comf ort. There are sor- 
rows' that are more blessed in their issues than any joys. 
It is, therefore, not always possible for the Lord to answer 
the prayer for relief from trouble without sacrificing the 
highest interests of them that pray. This fact, however, 
does not imply that prayer offered under the pressure of 
such trouble is ineffectual 

Consider the experience of St. Paul on this line. He 
suffered from some physical infirmity — a thorn in the 
flesh he calls' it, — that was a source of great humiliation 
and pain. Deliverance from this infirmity was intensely 
desired by the apostle. He writes, "I besought the Lord 
thrice that it might depart from me. And He said unto 
me, my grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is 
made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I 
glory in my infirmity that the power of Christ may rest 
upon me." The trouble did not depart in answer to Paul's 
prayer, but by the power of Christ, coming upon him in 
response to his prayer, the infirmity that humiliated him 
became ground for glorying, and the thorn in his flesh, 



PRAYER m AFFLICTION. 



231 



that pierced and tortured him, was wrought into a crown 
of rejoicing. 

This transforming of Paul's suffering into blessedness 
was not the result of affliction alone, but of affliction that, 
time and again, was taken to the Lord in earnest impor- 
tunate prayer. If he had shut God out of all this part of 
his life; if, while praying, he had made no mention of the 
pain he suffered, he would never have experienced any 
glorying in his infirmity, or any rejoicing in the blessed 
results of affliction. It was 1 prayer, that God answered in 
the words "my grace is sufficient for thee," and prayer 
that brought the grace itself into the apostle's heart. It 
was prayer, mark you, that had direct reference to the in- 
firmity of his flesh, that changed his humiliation into 
glorying; that caused his infirmity to issue in power, and 
his pain in rejoicing. Therefore, "Is any among you af- 
flicted? Let him pray." 

Consider the experience of a greater than Paul, — Jesus 
in the garden of Gethsemane. His soul is exceeding sor- 
rowful, even unto death, and He falls upon His face and 
prays, "O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass 
from me." Being in an agony, He prays more earnestly, 
"If it be possible, let this cup pass from me;" but, in the 
moment of his intensest anguish, he utters the words that 
are an expression of the highest possible issue of prayer, 
"nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt." 

O ye disciples of Jesus, when you enter your Gethsem- 
ane, and your suffering seems more than you can bear, 
remember the example of Him who for your sake became 
the man of sorrows, and bowing with Him before the 
heavenly Father, pour out your soul in prayer; and, though 



232 



PRAYER IX AFFLICTION. 



the bitter cup may not pass' from you yet if your prayer 
lift you up to the sublime height of perfect resignation to 
the Father's mil, you shall be infinitely more blessed in 
your suffering than any prayerless man ever was in his 
greatest joy. 

The soul which, through prayer, has been enabled to say 
in the midst of exquisite pain and heart breaking grief, 
"Not my will, but thine be done," has attained in its hum- 
ble submission to God, the climax of spiritual ennoble- 
ment, and in the extremity of its sorrow, the fulness of 
spiritual blessedness. 

"Is any among you afflicted? Let him pray." Deliver- 
ance from all your distresses, or consolation in the midst 
of them, comes in answer to prayer; or, if not either of 
these, then something immeasurably better. Affliction, 
taken to God in prayer, is the source of spiritual power, 
purity of heart and complete Christlikeness of character . 
Affliction, sanctified by prayer, sanctifies the afflicted, and 
so works out for them "a far more exceeding and eternal 
weight of glory." Therefore, if you are afflicted, afflicted 
in any way, burdened with any care, oppressed with any 
anxiety, heavy laden with any sorrow, bring all your fears 
and troubles and griefs to God in prayer. Pour out your 
heart before your heavenly Father in earnest supplication. 
He will hear and answer, and will send you the very bless- 
ing that shall result in the greatest possible good to your 
soul — instant deliverance from whatever distresses you, if 
this be best ; or divine consolation in the midst of your 
griefs, or the grace that shall transform your pain into pa- 
tience, your sorrows into sanctity and your suffering into 
glorying. 



SERMON" XVI. 



DIVINE PROVIDENCE. 

"And we know that all things work together for good to them 
that love God." Romans viii:28. 

A part of this text is sometimes quoted and applied as if 
the apostle had written "all things work together for 
good" to every one, whatever his character. Men who 
neither love God nor keep His commandments seek to 
comfort themselves in the troubles that result from their 
transgressions of divine law by saying "everything hap- 
pens for the best." But this is not taught in Holy Scrip- 
ture, nor is it true as a matter of fact. The fiery temp- 
ests that burned up Sodom and Gomorrah wore not com- 
missioned to bless, but to consume, the wicked inhabitants 
of these doomed cities. The waters' of the Red Sea did 
not overwhelm the hosts of Pharoah for their good, but for 
their destruction. God has nowhere promised that He 
will overrule the sufferings of obstinate sinners for their 
good. It is true that He loves all men; that He wills that 
the vilest, guiltiest sinners of earth turn from their evil 
ways and live; but they who resist His will and confirm 
themselves in sin must bear the consequences of their im- 
penitency. He has said that "it shall be ill with the 
wicked;" that their very "prosperity shall destroy them," 
that "when they look for peace and safety then sudden 
destruction shall come upon them, and they shall not es- 
cape." All the forces inherent in Godhead, and all the 
forces in operation in God's universe, "make for righteous- 
OS 



234 



DIVINE PROVIDENCE. 



ne5s" and against wickedness; and the final outcome from 
these forces shall be perfect blessedness to the righteous 
and remediless ruin to impenitent sinners. "All things 
work together for good," not tx> them who are the enemies 
of God by wicked works, but "to them that love God." 

Love to God is the essential spirit of true piety. It is the 
architect of a holy character, and the Christian's title to 
the many exceeding great and precious promises of the 
Lord to His people. So much depends upon our possessing 
this sacred love that we cannot afford to err in regard to its 
nature; and we shall do well therefore to pause a while 
upon the question, — what is that love to God which is 
required by the "first and great commandment?'' Is it a 
mere sentiment of admiration or of reverence ( It is 
simply an occasional warming of the heart towards God 
in grateful recognition of His goodness and loving-kind- 
ness? The Scriptures answer, "This is the love of God 
that ye keep His commandments." It is an abiding prin- 
ciple that uniformly manifests itself in obedience to the 
heavenly Father's will. It is impossible that it coexist 
with wilful sin. Wherever it rules in the heart it unifies 
all the elements of the moral nature in a holy character, 
and all the activities of the soul in holy conduct. Consci- 
entious and constant conformity to divine law is the only 
Scriptural proof that any man can give of the sincerity of 
His love to God. Our Lord said, "If a man love me he 
will keep my word." The love we owe to God and which 
His law demands is as strong as passion and as stable as 
principle, — a love that adores and obeys. It is to those 
who have this love in their hearts that the text applies, 



DIVINE PROVIDENCE. 



235 



"All things work together for good to them that love 
God." 

"For good." This word "good" is here used in its scrip- 
tural sense; and I need not enter upon any argument to 
show that this is not the sense in which a pleas urerseeker, 
or ambitious man, or a covetous, understands it. Worldly 
pleasure and riches and honors are not the "good" that God 
promises as the heritage of the righteous. These things 
which men so much desire and so earnestly seek, oftener 
than otherwise, are the curse and ruin of those who gain 
possession of them. It is only through poverty that the 
majority of men can ever inherit the true riches. It is' 
only through the discipline of sorrow that they can be 
made truly and permanently blessed. It is only through 
humiliation that they can ever attain the honor that cometh 
from God. And it is to the riches that are imperishable, 
the blessedness that abides forever, the honor that fades 
not away that the text refers. The "good" that consists 
in wealth of character, — the "good" that is the property 
of the immortal soul, — holy -affections-, holy principles, the 
image of God on man's spiritual nature, — this is the 
"good" with which the heavenly Father would enrich and 
ennoble His children. 

He made man to know and love and commune with 
Him, to bear His likeness, to walk in holy, rapturous fel- 
lowship with Himself, and man's true "good," the perfec- 
tion and blessedness of His spiritual manhood, can never 
be found in anything less than perfect spiritual union with 
God. The Spirit of God permeating and possessing every 
faculty of his mind and every love and principle of his 



236 



DIVIDE PEOVIDEXCE. 



soul living in him, his life and joy, and portion forever- 
more, this is his true good. 

In this spiritual union with God, man finds riches that 
perish not, a peace that pervades his whole being and is 
permanent, joys that never die, and a glory that is never 
dimmed. This is his supreme "good," without which all 
the kingdoms of the world, the wealth and pleasures and 
glory of them all, cannot give real contentment, no, not 
for one day. And it is that his people may possess this 
"good" in its fullness that God either ordains or overrules 
every event in their life-history. Under His supervision, 
"all things work together" to secure them that love Him 
in the enjoyment of this the supreme "good." 

It may be well for me at this point to put you on your 
guard against a dangerous misapprehension of the doctrine 
of the text that is not uncommon among those who count 
themselves Christians. There are men who think that 
they love God who include their own sins in "the all 
things" of the text and who cherish the unwarranted con- 
ceit that God will somehow make their wilful transgres- 
sions result in spiritual profit to them. St. Paul never 
taught any such doctrine of devils as that. ~N-o man is 
ever the better, but always the worse, for every sin he 
commits. The sins that other men are guilty of, their 
hatred of the saints, their revilings and persecutions, are 
made to contribute to the spiritual development of them 
that love God, but a man's own sins work harm to him, 
and nothing but harm. Sin is essentially evil. It is ac- 
cursed in its own nature and accursed in all its issues in 
the sinner's experience and character. It never did and 
never can do any man good. As a fact of my conscious- 



DIVIDE PROVIDENCE. 



237 



ness God Himself can put nothing into it that shall work 
me good; can get no good for me out of it, and can have 
nothing to do with it except to brand it with His reproba- 
tion. 

That St. Paul never meant to teach that their own sins 
work for good to them that love God is evident from the 
fact that his uniform doctrine is that a man who truly 
loves God does not commit sin. Love to God is the essen- 
tial spirit of holiness. It is the fulfilling of the law, the 
end of the commandment. Love to God and wilful sin 
are exclusive, the one of the other. They cannot dwell to- 
gether in the same heart. Sin, therefore, is no part of 
"the all things" that work together for good to them that 
love God, because it is non-existent where this love reigns. 

With this understanding, we have the right to believe 
and proclaim that "all things," meaning hereby, whatever 
exists, whatever occurs, whatever exerts force and all 
forces themselves in heaven and earth — "all things work 
together for good to them that love God." I know that 
there are many things that seem to be in direct conflict 
with this' teaching of Holy Scripture, — things that we can- 
not at all reconcile with it, and that sorely try our faith. 
Perhaps the chief difficulty that thinking men find in the 
way of fully accepting the blessed truth of the text is the 
fact that all natural forces, the force of gravity, mechani- 
cal forces, chemical forces, electric forces, vital forces, 
operate on the line of general laws which take no account 
or moral distinctions' and never discriminate in favor of 
the righteous. If the holiest man on earth crosses the 
path of these forces, however innocently, they crush and 
destroy him as relentlessly as if he were the vilest wretch 



238 



DIVINE PRO VIDE NCE. 



that ever disgraced the name of man. Earthquakes and 
tempests, pestilences, famines and floods, do not spare the 
righteous any more than the wicked, and because on the 
plane of natural law the same event happens to the evil 
and the good, there are those who have concluded that the 
text cannot be true. This conclusion, however, is not war- 
ranted by the premises. The very event which to the 
wicked may be a judgment, — having no blessing in it, may 
be to the righteous a gracious discipline that refines and 
sanctifies his character. The sudden and violent death 
that comes to both alike in the lightning stroke or on the 
wing of the whirldwind may be to the one a destruction 
without remedy and to the other a present deliverance and 
an eternal salvation. 

And it is to be remembered that the text lifts our 
thought above the level of natural causes and their visible 
effects to their issues in the spiritual history of them that 
love God. So far as we can see, all things may be work- 
ing to distress and destroy the saints; but there are invisi- 
ble wheels within the wheels we see whose motions are di- 
vinely guided towards a goal that is out of sight. Beyond 
and above such effects' of the forces of nature as come 
within the sphere of our observation there are issues of 
these forces in the realm of spirit that shall gloriously 
vindicate the truth of the text when the revelations of the 
last day make them fully known. God is in the forces of 
nature, and He so directs, in their workings and so deter- 
mines their results that the final outcome from them shall 
be the spiritual and eternal good of them that love Him. 

"All things work together for good to them that love 
God." There is no force that touches the Lord's people, 



DIVINE PBOVIDENOE. 



239 



whether it favors or frustrates their plans; no influence 
that affects them, whether pleasantly or painfully; and no 
event that occurs in their life, whether it makes them 
mourn or rejoice that is outside of the "all things" that 
work for their good. God hides them in His pavilion; in 
the secret of His tabernacle doth He hide them, and noth- 
ing can enter here that does not bear His commission to 
bless them. He hath put all things in heaven and earth 
and hell under bonds to do them good; and the day is com- 
ing when wicked men and devils shall be confounded by 
the revelation of the fact that the very methods they em- 
ployed to ensnare and ruin them were made to contribute 
to their spiritual growth and their eternal life. 

"All things work together for good to them that love 
God." Many things' in themselves considered, are evi- 
dently working to do them harm, and left to work out their 
natural effects, would certainly destroy them. But as 
there is a correlation of forces in the material world that 
produce results which no one of these forces could sim- 
ply produce, so there is' a correlation of forces in the spir- 
itual world, that brings forth issues that could not come 
from any one of them acting by itself. The earth re- 
volves around the sun as the result of the correlation of 
two directly antagonistic forces'. The centrifugal force, 
operating alone, would drive the earth in a straight line 
away from the sun out into void space and on through 
outer darkness forever. The centripetal force, operating 
alone, would plunge the earth directly into the fiery, con- 
suming embrace of the sun itself. But the correlation of 
these two forces causes the earth to describe just that or- 
bit around the sun which gives us our changes of seasons 



240 



DIVINE rHOVIDEXCE. 



and is' necessary to the highest development of life in both 
the animal and vegetable kingdoms. And so, the enemies 
of our holy religion, the world, the flesh and the devil, 
would drag the saints down into sin and ruin eternal if 
their influence were not counterworked by divine influ- 
ences which antagonize them. On the other hand, the 
attractions of the cross and the impelling force of divine 
grace, and the power of the Holy Ghost, acting alone, 
would bring the saints into the heavenly city without 
the necessity for any manifestation of energy or cour- 
age or perseverance on their part. In this case, 
however, they would arrive at the goal destitute of 
all that vigor of principle and strength of character which 
result from battling against wily and powerful spiritual 
foes. But the correlation of these opposing forces results 
in the highest perfection of Christian manhood. "All 
things work together for good to them that love God." 
There are no trials, no temptations, no joys or sorrows, 
no degrees of prosperity or adversity, absolutely nothing 
that touches the spiritual nature of a faithful Christian 
that does not in some way minister to his present increase 
in holiness and his future blessedness. 

This implies that God has a special providence over 
each one of His children, and that He adapts His dealings 
with each one to his personal characteristics'; and such is 
the case. Through experiences and by paths as various 
as are the mental and moral peculiarities that difference 
one Christian from another, God leads His children to 
their heavenly home. There are those upon whom the 
hand of affliction is seldom laid, and then but lightly. 
There are those who rarely see a day without sorrow. 



DIVINE PROVIDENCE. 



241 



There are those who breathe an atmosphere of love and 
kindness from their cradle to their grave. There are 
those who are isolated from their fellow men, strangers 
to the sweetnesss of friendship and shut off from human 
sympathy all their lives. There are those who are 
crowned with many and great honors, and those who live 
in obscurity; those who are rich in worldly goods, and 
those who know the bitterness of extreme poverty. God 
appoints these different estates to His people, accordingly 
as He knows that the one or the other will be most con- 
ducive to their spiritual and eternal good. 

To purify gold and silver they must be subjected to an 
intense heat. To purify soiled garments they need only 
to be washed in water. To purify other things they must 
be subjected to the chemical actions of acids or alkalies. 
The wisdom of man is profitable to direct in these matters. 
There are plants that grow to perfection in the full blaze 
of the sun, but perish in the shade. There are plants 
that are drowned if covered with water, and plants that 
can live only under water. The wisdom of the divine 
husbandman has rooted each in the place where it is fitted 
to flourish. 

Human hearts differ as much as any of these things. 
There are men whose character ripens in goodness and 
bears the fruits of righteousness only under the shadow of 
disappointment and life-long sorrow. There are men in 
whose hearts every grace would die if subjected to the 
same experience. There are men whose spiritual nature 
develops in all that is true and beautiful and good in the 
sunshine of prosperity; and men who would be spiritually 
ruined by the same sunshine. 



242 



DIVIDE PROVIDENCE. 



And if man is too wise to attempt to purify gold and 
silver ore by simply dipping it in water; if he is too wise 
to cast linen garments into a fiery furnace to make them 
clean ; if he knows' better than to attempt to remove stains 
from parchment by immersing it in muriatic acid, shall 
God be thought to be ignorant of the best methods by 
which to purify human hearts? And shall not He who 
gives the lily root by the water side and the oak upon the 
hill top; who plants the lotus in the Nile and the cedar 
upon Lebanon, see to it that those who love Him are 
surrounded by the very circumstances that shall most 
surely develop all their good qualities? Shall He number 
all the hairs of our head and regard the falling of a sparrow 
and yet not care enough for the immortal souls of His own 
children to order His providence so as to promote their 
spiritual growth and secure their eternal blessedness? 

God is over all and through all and in all; and His prov- 
idential government of the world has direct and constant 
reference to the highest interests of those who love Him. 
No road of their journey through time touches' the realm 
of chance, and no event of their history is thrown off by 
the wheel of fortune. "We may be greatly troubled and 
our faith severely tried by the inexplicable mysteries that 
mark the lives of many of the Lord's people on earth ; but 
what seems to us utter chaos in the great world of human 
hearts and natural forces lias in it a divine order and is 
under the control of divine wisdom and power which are 
making a all things work together for good to them that 
love God." 

Hold fast to this blessed truth. There shall come times 
when you shall sorely need the strength arid comfort that 



DIVINE PKOVIDENCE. 



243 



can be found in nothing else than a whole hearted belief 
in the special and constant providence of God ; times when, 
if your faith relax its grasp upon this truth your souls 
must sink in the dark waters of despair. It needs no 
prophets vision to see that suffering and sorrow await ev- 
ery one of you. However firm; the mountain of your pros- 
perity and happiness may now stand it shall be removed 
out of its place. "Man is born to trouble." Labor and 
sorrow are the portion of all our race; therefore, though 
you live many days and rejoice in them all, yet remember 
the days of darkness for they shall be many. Before your 
bodies rest in the grave they shall be pierced by sharp 
pains and writhe in the grasp of fierce diseases. Before 
your souls enter into the joys of heaven they shall look with 
dismay upon the wreck of many a cherished hope and upon 
the pallid face of many a dead friend; shall drink many a 
bitter draught of grief and cry in anguish through many 
a night of sorrow. Take with you into the days of dark- 
ness the blessed truth that the wise and loving providence 
of the heavenly Father is always over you; that He is or- 
dering your steps and choosing your changes. May the 
Spirit of all grace endow you with that clearness of spirit- 
ual vision which sees 1 the bow of promise spanning every 
storm that breaks upon you, and upon that bow of promise 
these words of inspiration, "All things work together for 
good to them that love God." 



SERMON XVII 



JESUS CHRIST, THE HEALER OF SOULS. 

"And Jesus said somebody hath touched me; for I perceive 
that virtue has gone out of me." St. Luke viii:46. 

When Jesus returned from Gadara, where He cast the 
legion of devils out of the demoniac, the people of Galilee 
gladly received Him. They were waiting for Him by the 
seaside. Immediately upon His landing there came to 
Him a ruler of the synagogue, beseeching Him to 
hasten to his house and heal his little daugher who was 
dying. As Jesus went the multitude thronged Him. 
There were among them those whom He had healed of dis- 
eases 1 incurable by human skill; and they crowded about 
His person to express their gratitude. There were those 
doubtless who were attracted by the fame of this great 
teacher, and who hoped that some word would fall from 
his lips that would be to them the word of eternal life. 
There were those who were controlled by an idle curiosity, 
and who had no higher motive for seeking the presence of 
Jesus than the desire to witness the perf ormance of a mira- 
cle. There were many who came for the loaves and fishes, 
hoping to be fed, as the multitude had been a few days be- 
fore. 

But there was one in the throng who came to be healed. 
She had suffered from a wasting and painful malady for 
twelve years'. Neither time nor medical skill brought her 
any relief. Worn, wasted, hopeless, nothing remained so 
far as she could see, but to resign herself to the power of 



JESUS CHRIST, HEALER OF SOULS. 245 

disease and wait with what composure she could command 
the steady approach of inevitable death. 

But before death Jesus came. She heard from the 
friends who visited her lowly home, of His compassion for 
the poor, of His sympathy for the sick, of His miraculous 
power; and as she listened to the wonderful story of His 
works of healing, hope that had died in her heart revived 
again; and she joined the multitude that waited for Him 
there by the sea. When He came, and she looked into 
His face, she saw there an expression of such majestic 
power joined with such tenderness of mercy, that she said 
within herself, "If I may but touch His clothes I shall be 
made whole;'" and, coming from behind, she timidly 
reached forth her thin, pale hand, and touched the hem of 
His garment ; and immediately she was healed of her dis- 
ease. Then Jesus turned Him about and said, "Who 
touched me?" And Peter said, "Master the multitudes 
throng and press thee, and sayest thou, who touched me ?" 
Many had touched Him. In the press there were scorces, 
doubtless who came in contact with His person that day. 
But there was only one among them, to whose touch His 
healing virtue responded ; and "Jesus said somebody hath 
touched me, for I perceive that virtue is gone out of me." 
And the woman, "seeing that she was known, came tremb- 
ling, and falling at His feet, declared unto Him before all 
the people for what cause she had touched Him and how she 
was healed immediately. And He said to the trembling 
woman kneeling at His feet, O so graciously, "Daughter be 
of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole; go in 
peace." 



246 JESUS CHRIST, HEALER OF SOULS. 

The Scriptures present Jesus to our faith as our prophet, 
priest and King; the light of the world; the water of life; 
the bread which came down from heaven, of which if a 
man eat he shall never die ; the one mediator between God 
and men; the eternal life of them that believe. The text 
calls us to consider Him as the divine Healer. During His 
three year's ministry He healed all manner of diseases. 
Indeed so numerous were the forth-puttings of His power 
in this direction, so continuously was He employed in giv- 
ing health to the sick, that no name seems more applicable 
to Him as descriptive of His life-work, than this name 
Healer. And His miracles of healing are as full of in- 
struction as His words of teaching. They are vastly more 
than exhibitions of divine power. They are manifesta- 
tions of the grace and glory of His character. They are 
liftings of the veil that hangs' between the material and 
spiritual worlds and the let tings in of light upon their 
relation one to the other. Above all they are special reve- 
lations of the laws of Christ's spiritual kingdom. 

All diseases that afflict men have resulted from the dis- 
turbance of their normal relations to God and divine law. 
Sin is the original source of all our sicknesses ; and Christ's 
treatment of the sick had direct and constant reference to 
this fact. It is made evident in His miracles of healing 
that to Him is committed primarily the cure of souls; and 
His healing power as applied to diseased bodies is subordi- 
nated to and made to illustrate the principles that control 
its going forth for the cure of diseased spiritual natures. 

Among all His miracles' of healing there are none that 
teach lessons of greater interest and importance than the 
one to which your attention is now called. The case of 



JESUS CHRIST, HEALER OF SOULS. 247 

the woman healed in touching the hem of Christ's garment 
illustrates : 1. The nature and progress of the spiritual 
malady from which all men suffer. 2. The way in which 
the diseased soul must approach Christ to be healed. 3. 
The actual putting forth of healing virtue on the part of 
Christ for the cure of every soul that comes to Him by 
faith. 

1. The spiritual sickness from which all men suffer is 
sin, and, in two particulars, its nature is illustrated by the 
experience of this woman. 

In the first place, she grew worse under every form of 
treatment except that of Jesus. Her disease was' not per- 
mitted to run its course without any effort on her part to 
arrest it. She applied to the physicians; and evidently 
used whatever remedy they prescribed, however painful or 
costly. Through twelve years she clung to hope and 
bravely battled for life. With woman's pathetic patience 
and trustfulness she persevered in the course recommended 
by her doctors. Health was to her more than riches, and 
she spent all her substance that she might find it. But, as 
St. Mark tells us, "She was nothing bettered, but rather 
grew worse." Of how many suffering days and sleepless 
nights is this short sentence the history. Of how manv 
buried hopes is it the epitaph. "She was nothing bettered, 
but rather grew worse." A thousand remedies that had 
never been known to fail, she tried, but all in vain. The 
disease never relaxed its grasp upon her. In its steadily 
tightening clutch it dragged her down every day nearer to 
the grave. 

These facts illustrate the history of sin in the world. At 
the time Jesus came the virus of this spiritual disease per- 



248 JESUS CHRIST, HEALER OF SOULS. 

vaded all human souls. The race was sick unto death, and, 
in its alarms, it sought by its wise men, its philosophers, 
and lawgivers and priests for a cure; but, alas, it found 
none. Neither the religions of the ancient world, nor its 
legal codes, nor its systems of philosophy availed to rid 
it of the evils that were defiling persoanl character, cor- 
rupting domestic life, consuming the vitals of society and 
threatening the existence of the civil government itself. 
The description that St. Paul gives of the moral state of 
the race in his epistle to the Romans, a description whose 
accuracy is attested by the poets and historians of that 
age, shows that all virtue, private, domestic and social was 
dying out of the earth; and that diabolism was fast taking 
the place of humanity in the hearts of men. All man- 
kind were infected by a moral leprosy that seemed incura- 
ble; and never until the diseased and perishing race 
reached forth its hand and touched the hem of Christ's 
garment did the tide of returning health begin to flow 
through its' arteries and veins. 

But I turn from the wide field of thought lying out in 
that direction, and call your attention to the spiritual 
sickness of humanity as it affects individuals. The lep- 
rosy of sin grows worse and worse in the case of every man 
until he comes to Christ to be healed. Its violence may 
be modified and its progress retarded in many ways, but 
it cannot be arrested, and much less can it be cured, by 
any method of man's devising. There is not an unregen- 
erate man on earth whose spiritual state is' not essentially 
worse than it was one year ago. He may give no evidence 
of this fact in his outward life, but the habits of thought, 
and desire and passion which constitute him irreligious 



JESUS CHRIST , HEALER OF SOULS. 249 

in character are strengthening their hold upon him day by; 
day. His friends may take no note of it, he himself may 
not suspect it, yet the disease preying upon his soul is 
all the while tending towards that point at which it is 
no longer curable. There is not a day in which the soul 
that will not come to Christ is not more deeply infected by 
the virus of sin. 

This is a fact that ought to arrest the attention of every 
one of you whose soul sickness has not been cured by the 
healing virtue that is in Jesus. However little thought 
you may have given to the disease that threatens your spir- 
itual manhood with eternal death, it cannot be that you 
are wholly indifferent upon the subject. You would turn 
pale with fright and your knees would smite together in 
terror if you knew that you could never be cured, — never 
saved from the curse of sin. You know men who are so 
pervaded and corrupted by selfishness and sensuality, so 
thoroughly possessed by evil lusts and pasions, that you 
have no hope of their ever being reclaimed and made holy. 
You regard them as incurable, and you would not be in 
their case for all the kingdoms of the world and the glory 
of them. And yet the most hopelessly depraved among 
them were once no worse than the best among you who 
are unregenerate. There was a time when the disease of 
sin had made no further progress in their experience than 
it has in yours. But they ventured to do what you are 
doing, — refused to come to Jesus, the Healer of souls; 
and, because of this refusal, their condition has gradually 
grown worse until it has become hopeless. If you do not 
come to Christ you see in their history a prophecy of your 
own, — a prophecy the fulfillment of which is inevitable, 

(16) 



250 JESUS CHRIST, HEALER OF SOULS. 

either in this world or the world to come. The virus of 
sin shall more and more permeate your moral nature un- 
til it poisons your whole spiritual manhood. Every fault 
of character, every evil passion, every vice of disposition 
shall grow worse as long as you live on earth and through- 
out eternity unless you are saved from sin by the grace 
of Christ. All wrong habits of feeling and thinking and 
acting shall become more and more inwrought into your 
moral being until the corruption of your soul shall be so 
radical and complete that it shall be impossible for you to 
be renewed into repentance. Whether you realize it or 
not, every day that you persist in refusing to come to 
Christ for spiritual healing, the leprosy of sin is nearing 
its issue in the second death. 

The case of the woman healed by touching the hem of 
Christ's garment illustrates another fact in the experience 
of the sinner. The progress of her disease increased the 
difficulty and suffering involved in her coming to Christ 
to be healed; and, had she delayed much longer, would 
have rendered it impossible for her to come at all. Her 
strength was going from her. It was almost gone. In 
another month, or week, the Divine Healer might have 
passed right by her door, and she would not have been able 
so much as to raise her voice and call to Him for help. 
Needing Him more and more every day, she was every 
day less and less able to come to Him. 

And this is the case with all who are spiritually dis- 
eased. I know that the power to come to Christ for the 
cure of the soul is imparted by the Holy Ghost, but it is a 
power that operates through a quickened conscience, 
through awakened moral sensibilities, through affections 



JESUS CHRIST, HEALER OF SOULS. 251 

that cry out after God, through a good will acting under 
the influence of divine grace, and, as the soul becomes 
more and more infected by the virus of sin, conscience 
becomes indurated, the moral sensibilities apathetic, the 
will enslaved, the heart callous, until the sinner's spirit- 
ual nature is altogether irresponsive to divine influences, 
and he is given over of God to eat the fruit of his own do- 
ing and to be filled with his own devices. 

These are facts that all among you who have not come to 
Christ to be healed ought seriously to ponder. While you 
stay away from Him evils that threaten your soul with 
death are growing worse, and your power to come to Christ 
is diminishing. You could have come to Him five years ago 
more easily than you can now. You can come now more 
easily than you can at any time in all your future life. 

Your spiritual ills that are premonitory of eternal death 
are increasing. The desire of the eye, the pride of life, 
and the lust of the flesh are striking their roots deeper in 
your moral nature, and are attaining a sturdier growth. 
Your conscience is not as tender as it once was; your 
emotions are not so easily nor so deeply stirred by religi- 
ous truth as formerly, and the cross of Christ does not at- 
tract you towards God as when you were less wordly and 
carnal. You are losing the inclinaton to come to Christ. 
The power to come to Him is going from you; and, once 
gone, there is no deliverance for you, in this world or the 
world to come. 

O come to Jesus; come before the effects of sin upon 
your soul render it impossible for you to approach Him. 
By the awful nature of that death in which sin terminates ; 
by the preciousness of a clean conscience and a pure heart, 



252 jesus ciirist, healer of souls. 

the favor of God and eternal life, I beseech you to come 
to Christ. By the wasting away of your power to come; 
by the certainty of its failing you altogether if you long 
refuse, I beseech you to come now. 

2. The case of the woman healed in touching Christ's 
garment, illustrates the way by which every soul that 
would be cured of sin must approach the divine Healer. 

Although the multitude thronged Jesus' and many of 
them touched Him, yet His healing virtue went forth in 
response to no touch save that of this woman. This fact 
indicates some quality in her touch that differenced it 
from a mere physical contact with His person. What 
this quality was we learn from the woman's own words and 
from what Jesus said to her after she was healed. "She 
said within herself, If I may but touch His clothes I shall 
be made whole." There was not the shadow of a doubt 
in her mind as to the result. And, when she was healed, t 
Jesus said to her, "Daugher be of good comfort, thy faith 
hath made thee whole." Hers was the touch of faith. 
It was not the mere taking hold upon the hem of Christ's 
garment that effected the cure. It was the taking hold upon 
Christ Himself by the faith of her heart that brought 
health to her diseased body. The hand could only touch 
the garment of Jesus, and there was no healing power in 
that. But the faith that was in her soul touched the liv- 
ing Christ Himself, in whom is all power. Herein we 
find the spiritual significance of this miracle, — the con- 
necting link between the impartation of health to a dis- 
eased body and the laws of Christ's spiritual kingdom. 
Some sort of contact between the sinful soul and Jesus 
there must be in order to its spiritual healing; and the 



Jesus christ, healer of souls. 253 

teaching of the miracle as of all Scripture is that, however 
many the possible modes of contact with the Lord Jesus, 
it is only contact with Him by faith that effects the soul's 
cure. Personal contact with Jesus by a faith that has 
spiritual healing as its specific object is the demand that 
He makes upon every soul that would be healed. There 
has always been need that this truth be emphasized, and I 
dwell upon it now because the need still exists. 

Intellectual contact with Christ, however close and long 
continued and however profitable in some of its results', 
cannot produce spiritual health. The essential figure in 
this world's mental history is the Lord Jesus; and the 
leading minds among men never more fully recognized 
this fact than now, and were never more busy with His 
person and character and work. There have been more 
"Lives of Jesus" written in the last century than in all the 
centuries preceding. He is the center of the most ad- 
vanced and earnest thought of the age. Skeptical scien- 
tists and infidel philosophers, may set themselves in array 
against him but they cannot ignore him. Every line of 
thought somehow leads men into the presence of J esus of 
Nazareth. Which ever way they travel in the realm of 
mental activity they are sure to find that he is there in the 
way, and that they are compelled to range themselves on 
the side of those who are for Him or those who are against 
Him. It has hence come to pass that the great thinkers 
of the world, some sneeringiy it is true, but others rever- 
ently, are repeating to their fellow men the words of Pilate, 
'•'Behold the man." Thus directed, the mind of the world 
is in closer and more constant contact with Christ than 
ever before. In all spheres of investigation the multi- 



254 JESUS CHRIST, HEALER OF SOULS. 

tudes throng and press the Son of Man. There is hope 
in this. It is a most promising sign of the times. But spir- 
itual health is not the immediate result in any instance. 
You may keep yourselves in intellectual contact with 
Jesus all your lives; may study every day the writings of 
theologians and the testimony of apostles concerning Him, 
and yet never be healed of the leprosy of sin. 

It is not contact with Christ through sentiment and 
imagination that brings health to the soul. Such contact 
may refine moral sentiment and be a source of delight to 
the imaginative faculty, but it does not cure man's spir- 
itual disease. Every sentiment of the human heart that 
is responsive to the true and beautiful and good in charac- 
ter and life is thrilled and charmed by the flawless truth, 
the perfect beauty and goodness of the life and character of 
Jesus. Imagination rejoices to find its loftiest ideal of 
heroism, and consecration to the demands of holy love, 
and sublime self-sacrifice for love's sake, more than real- 
ized in the history of Jesus, and it would not, if it could 
break the charm that holds' it to the reverent contempla- 
tion of His perfect manhood. Through sentiment and 
imagination the world draws near to Christ. In this sphere 
the multitudes throng and press around Him every day. 
Not only in the higher styles of literature and oratory; 
not only in the pulpit and academic halls', but in political 
harangues, and the commonest works of fiction, when the 
writer or speaker would most profoundly affect the imagi- 
nation and sentiments of men, he instinctively employs 
the materials furnished to hand by the history of the Son 
of Man. And through imagination and sentiment the 
people of Christendom are almost always in contact with 



JESUS CHRIST, HEALER OF SOUES. 255 

Jesus. But while this is also a most cheering sign of the 
times and full of promise for the future, it is not the direct 
source of spiritual health. 

Not the men who gathered about Jesus to subject His 
words and work to analysis and judgment; not those who 
pressed near because their imagination had been excited 
by the report of His wonderful miracles; nor yet those who 
thronged Him under the influence of sentiments of admir- 
ation or gratitude or reverence were saved; but the woman,, 
who nothing doubting, reached forth her hand, saying, "If 
I may but touch His clothes, I shall be healed." It is 
personal contact with Christ by an act of faith that has 
spiritual health as its end that insures the inflowing of His 
healing virtue into the heart. 

Would you obtain pardon and purity, sanctification of 
character and eternal life? Would you have your spirit- 
ual manhood made every whit whole? Then come to the 
Healer of souls with the unquestioning confidence felt by 
the woman who touched the hem of Christ's garment. 
Come, making a personal appropriation of Christ's heal- 
ing virtue and you shall have the blessed consciousness of 
perfect spiritual soundness. While the multitudes throng 
and press and touch Jesus in thought, in imagination and 
in sentiment, do you come to Him in the exercise of a faith 
that embraces and clings to Him as your righteousness 
and sanctification and redemption. 

3. The case of the woman healed by Christ illustrates 
the fact that there is an actual putting forth of healing 
virtue on His part whenever a soul takes hold upon Him 
by faith, — an actual going out from Him of that virtue 
which is the cure of souls. 



256 JESUS CHRIST, HEALER OF SOULS. 

That a complete change is wrought in the character of 
sinful men who believe upon Jesus with their hearts unto 
righteousness, is a fact so potent that those who do not ac- 
cept the gospel as of divine origin cannot deny it. No one 
whose opinion is worth considering, doubts that hundreds 
and thousands of deprayed men have been transformed, 
ennobled, made holy, through faith in Christ. While no 

self-respecting skeptic dares to deny this, yet unbelievers, 
with one consent attempt to account for it independently 
of any divine influence or power. Christianity, they say,, 
though merely human in its origin, is wonderfully adapted 
to the excitement in those who accept it as divine an in- 
tense love of virtue and hatred of vice. The works, the 
sufferings, the death and resurrection of Jesus as recorded 
in the gospels, they say, though largely legendary and not 
historically true, naturally tend to reproduce the image of 
Jesus in the hearts of those who believe that in the gospels 
we have a divinely inspired narrative of facts. In this 
way they seek to resolve the process of regeneration into a 
work wrought by man's imagination and sentiment kindled 
into enthusiasm by belief in a sublime fiction. But what- 
ever temporary effects may result from religious enthusi- 
asm it is certain that regeneration such as we have wit- 
nessed and experienced, cannot rationally be ascribed to 
any kind or degree of enthusiasm. The saving work of 
Christ goes down to the foundations of character. Moral 
natures wholly corrupted have not only been made holy 
and kept holy for a week or a month by the spiritual virtue 
that flows from Christ, but they have been preserved in 
their integrity and sanctity through scores' of years in the 
midst of fiery trials and fierce temptations, — a work that 



JESUS C HEIST, HEALEE OF SOULS. 25? 

no intelligent man can honestly ascribe to any sort of en- 
thusiasm. If Unrist is not the living, divine, almighty 
Healer of souls 5 then the history of the 1 Church presents a 
vast array of facts for which no adequate cause; has ever 
been found. 

But this is a question that can be settled no otherwise 
than by the testimony of consciousness. Regeneration is 
a matter of experience; and the difference between being 
the originator of moral forces that change the heart, and 
being the subject upon which such forces operate', is a dif- 
ference cognizable by consciousness, so that whether the, 
regenerate man has transf ormed himself or has been trans- 
formed by a power that is not from or of himself, is a ques- 
tion that he alone is competent to answer. And the uni- 
versal testimony of Christians is that in regeneration they 
felt the touches of a power that they themselves did not 
originate, and that wrought effects in them that they did 
not even hope for. That their religious experience is 
traceable to their own imagination and sentiment in joint 
operation is to them a proposition that is unspeakably ab- 
surd. They know Him whom they have believed, and 
with one voice they testify that by a supernatural power 
He has renewed and saved them; taken away the guilt of 
their past sins, delivered them from the tyranny of evil 
habits and made them new creatures in all their ruling 
loves and principles. 

I pray you who have not this experience, put the ques- 
tion to the test of experiment. Come to Christ for spirit- 
ual health. You are spiritually diseased, sick unto death. 
The progress of the leprosy of sin may be so insidious as 
to cause you no alarm, yet it is steadily growing worse. 



258 JESUS CHRIST, HEALER OF SOULS. 

You are, if slowly, yet surely, sinking into a state that is in- 
curable; and you are losing the power to come to Him who 
alone can make you whole. Come to Christ. Before con- 
science has lost its tenderness; before religious sensibility 
is clean gone; before your strength is utterly wasted; before 
sin has brought forth eternal death in your experience, 
come to the Healer of souls. Take hold upon Him by 
faith; and, responsive to your touch, healing virtue shall 
flow from Him into your souls, imparting perfect spiritual 
soundness. 



SERMON XVIII. 



THE WORKING TOGETHER OF GOD AND MAN IN THE 
SALVATION OF THE SOUL. 

"Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for 
ii is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of his good 
pleasure." Philipians ii: 12-13. 

There are certain fatal errors' in religious opinion that 
have resulted from the putting asunder of the two things 
that the Spirit of inspiration has joined together in the 
text. On the one hand, there are those who hold that God 
so works in us to will and to do that there is no necessity for 
our working at all, — that salvation is wrought in man's ex- 
perience by a sovereign, divine grace independently of his 
cooperation. On the other hand, there are those who 
either deny or ignore that spiritual impotency which has 
resulted from the depravity of human nature and, who 
hold that, without any direct divine aid, every man ha r 
power to achieve holiness of character and win eternal life. 

Both of these opinions are in conflict with the teachings 
of Holy Scripture, of observation, and experience. There 
is nothing more positively affirmed in the Word of God, 
nothing more fully proven by the facts of history and noth- 
ing to which eonesiousness more unequivocally testifies than 
that man is morally depraved, dead in trespasses and sinsj 
destitute of every germ of holy character. 

In the first chapter of the epistle to the Romans we have 
a divinely drawn picture of human nature and human life 
such as they are when man is given over of God to the tyr- 



260 



SALVATION OF THE SOUL. 



anny of his own evils; and dark as that picture is, unre- 
lieved by the light of one holy affection or principle, yet 
profane history unites with sacred Scripture in attesting its 
perfect accordance with the facts. "The corruption of the 
nature of every man who is naturally gendered of the off- 
spring of Adam is such that he cannot turn himsef to faith 
and calling upon God unless the grace of God go before 
and assist him that he may have a good will and work with 
him when he has a good will." 

Every man is absolutely dependent upon the grace of 
God for power to work out his own salvation. While this is 
true it is also true that divine grace neither does nor can 
save any man without co-operation. The bare statement 
of what salvation is ought to be sufficient to make this evi- 
dent to all who think. Salvation is a work wrought in 
man's moral nature, and is identical with personal holiness. 
To be holy is to be saved; but holiness is neither a necessi- 
tated, nor an accidental nor an unintentional, conf ormity to 
divine law. The lower animals are all in harmony with 
every law of God that relates to them; but whoever heard 
of a holy horse, or a holy dog? And why not? Because 
holiness is the voluntary conformity of a moral agent to 
divine law. If the element of voluntariness is lacking in 
any act or course of action it is' without any moral quality, 
whatever. A necessitated obedience to God on the part of 
man would no more be holiness in him than is the necessi- 
tated revolution of the earth upon its axis holiness in the 
earth. If an irresistable divine power, call it sovereign 
grace, or what you please, were to seize upon man's soul 
and overmaster his will, he would hereby be rendered as in- 
capable of holiness as is a log of wood. The almightiness of 



SALVATION OF THE SOUL. 



261 



the God of truth cannot work contradictions, and therefore, 
it cannot force any man to be holy, for this would involve 
such contradictions as these, it would necessitate that which 
to be at all must be voluntary, and would make a man holy 
by the very process which, destroying his moral agency, 
would render him incapable of holiness. And the Scrip- 
tures, while teaching that God is doing all that divine love 
can prompt and divine wisdom can devise and divine power 
can effect to save men, uniformly teach that their salvation 
hinges upon the self-determining power of their own will. 
Since the world began no man has been saved indepen- 
dently of his own willing and his own working. 

Grace cannot save you unless you work together with 
God to this end, and without the aid of divine grace you can 
do nothing towards saving yourselves. But all that you 
lack for the accomplishment of this great work is freely 
supplied by the Holy Spirit; and, gratefully receiving and 
diligently using the grace He bestows, you may all stand 
complete in righteousness at last, saved with the power of 
an endless life. Therefore writes the apostle, "Work out 
your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God 
that worketh in you both to will and to do of His good 
pleasure." 

1. God works in you by the hand of providence. By a 
material body He has brought you into very close relations 
to the material world ; and, through five physical senses, the 
God of nature, everywhere present in His works, is al- 
ways acting upon your intellect, your sensibilities, your 
affections, seeking to do you good. The heavens declare 
to you His glory. The firmament shows you His handi- 
work. Day unto day uttereth speech of Him in your 



262 



SALVATION OF THE SOUL. 



hearing. He has canopied and compassed you around 
with a great cloud of witnesses to His being, His wisdom, 
His power and goodness; and His providential govern- 
ment is' administered with direct and constant reference 
to the salvation and eternal life of your souls. 

The spiritual nature of man is the scene of perpetual di- 
vine activity, — the center towards which converge and in 
which meet all the forth-puttings of divine power on 
earth. There is a sense in which the flowers that adorn 
our gardens 1 bloom also in this spiritual garden which 
God cultivates; and never a flower had opened there but 
that it might blossom here. There is a sense in which the 
procession of the seasons, spring following winter, and 
summer coming after spring, and autumn marching in its 
order, take their way through this spiritual field, where 
God is the husbandman, and where each of the seasons has 
its appointed task. There is a sense in which the sun 
rises and sets, and the moon revolves in her orbit, and the 
stars move in their courses' as instruments by which God 
works in men to save them. There is a sense in which 
the flash of the lightning, the roar of the thunder, the rush 
of the tornado and the shock of the earthquake are process- 
es carried on in this spiritual laboratory, where God is the 
workman and holiness of character is the issue of the 
work. 

How often the songs of birds' attuned the lips of men to 
sing the praises of God. How often has the beauty of 
flowers been to men the type of spiritual beauty, and in- 
spired the prayer, "Let the beauty of the Lord our God be 
upon ns." How often has the glory of the firmament been 
the mirror from which men have seen reflected an image 



SALVATION OF THE SOUL. 



263 



of the glory of God. How often has' the Lord, by the 
hands of the first-born child, mighty in their infantile 
weakness, lifted up the hearts of father and mother into 
that sacred realm of experience where, for the first time 
in their lives, they have realized something of the infinite 
tenderness and strength of the love that is' in the heart of 
our Father in heaven towards us His children upon the 
earth. 

There is not a chord in man's spiritual nature, whether, 
Avhen struck, it rings in rapture, or sighs' in sorrow; 
whether it shouts in joy or mourns in penitence; whether 
it gives forth the deep tones of adoration, or the high notes 
of praise, that the hand of divine providence has not 
touched and made to vibrate a thousand times. The whole 
course of nature, and all providential events center in that 
working of God in you, of which the apostle writes in the 
text. Sickness and health, prosperity and adversity, the 
birth of children and the death of parents; the true and 
beautiful and good in every object and relation and exper- 
ience are all wrought into this working of God in you to 
save you. 

There may be many good men who are not at all con- 
scious of this now; but I doubt not that when the saints 
come to read their earthly history in the light of the 
revelations of heaven, they shall see how all the forces of 
nature and all divine providences were made to contri- 
bute to thiat spotless sanctity and nobleness of character 
and fulness of eternal life which are their celestial heri- 
tage. Always, by the hand of providence, God is working 
in you to save you; breaking up the fallow ground of your 
spiritual nature by the shares of suffering; or sowing there 



264 



SALVATION OF THE SOUL. 



the seeds of truth; or watering the plants of grace with 
your tears of grief; or quickening their growth by the 
sunshine of your joys. Always, by the hands of provi- 
dence, God is working in you to save you; pruning the 
vines of your earthly affections, whose too vigorous growth 
exhausts your spiritual strength; or taking the objects 
around which they entwine themselves to heaven, and 
so drawing you heavenward by all the strength of your 
love for the father, the mother, the little one who has 
gone before you. Always, by the han^d of providence, 
God is working in you to save you; humbling your pride 
by demonstrating the folly of your wisdom and the weak- 
ness of your strength; inspiring faith and commanding 
reverence by tlhe stability of his providential government 
and the exactness with which his laws are executed; and 
exciting adoration in your hearts by the infinite mysteries 
that surround you from the cradle to the grave. 

The material universe is a vast magazine of forces by 
means of which God carries forward sanctifying and sav- 
ing processes in the experience of men. The visible world 
does not exist for itself. It would never liave been called 
into being except as the sphere in which immortal spirits 
might work out for themselves a heritage of fadeless 
honor and eternal blessedness. The sun, moon and stars, 
the green earth, continents, islands and seas, winds, trees 
and powers why should they have existed at all, if there 
had been no intelligent, spiritual beings to whose develop- 
ment they were to minister? The ceaseless and infinitely 
varied activities of God in nature, do not terminate in 
any visible or temporary results. They are all articulated, 
into His spiritual working in men to save and bless them. 



SALVATION Off THE SOUL. 265 

2. God works in you by the enlightening and quick- 
ening power of the truth as it is in J esus. The Scripture 
symbol of this truth is the light of the sun. It holds the 
same place and performs the same offices in the spiritual 
world that the sunbeams do in the material. And how 
vast, how various and precious are the works wrought by 
the sunbeams. They do nothing but shine; but in shin- 
ing, they cover the earth with its carpeting of grass, adorn 
it with the beauty of its flowers, and enrich it with its 
golden grain and luscious fruits. They do nothing but 
shine, but, in shining, they roll back the pall of dark- 
ness which but for them would enshroud a dead world; 
quicken its pulses with life, and gladden with light its 
pathway through the heavens. They unlock from the 
earth the icy embraces of winter, set free the fettered songs 
of birds and the frozen sap of trees; robe the forests in 
the foliage and make them melodious with the songs of 
spring. They lift the watery vapors from the sea* and 
send them upon the wings of the wind to pour out their 
blessings upon mountain and valley. They start the germ 
in all the seeds' we sow, ripen all our harvests and fill the 
granaries of the world. They fall more softly and silently 
than the snow flakes, and yet all the power present in the 
vital process of the animal and vegetable: kingdoms, all the 
lightning strokes, and storms and ocean currents, all the 
latent forces stored up in the coal beds of earth, is the 
power of these softly and silently falling sunbeams. 

God is the sun of the spiritual world, and His shining is 
that light of the knowledge of his glory in the face of 
Jesus Christ, by which He duplicates in the spiritual na- 
ture of believers the work which the sunbeams perform 
0: 



266 



SALVATION OF THE SOUL. 



in the material world. The lightning flashes of conviction 
that break the hard heart in pieces and smite down the 
proud spirit into the dust of humility, the mighty cur- 
rents of penitential emotion and desires after holiness 
which bear the soul towards God all result from the shin- 
ing of the sun of righteousness. Touched by the light oi 
the grace and mercy, the justice and love of God which 
shines from the face of Jesus Christ, crucified to redeem us 
sinners, conscience becomes sensitively alive to the ex- 
ceeding sinfulness of sin, and the soul that was dead in 
sin wakes from the sleep of this death, wakes to mourn 
over its guilt, to bewail its uncleanness and to call upon 
God for pardon and purity. The light of the tender com- 
passion and loving kindness of God, shining from the face 
of Christ into the heart of the penitent quickens faith 
there and hope and love, and causes every virtue and grace 
of Christian character to germinate and grow and bear 
fruit unto holiness. 

The light of the truth as it is in Jesus is the mightiest 
Spiritual power at work among men. It has changed vast 
regions of the earth from abodes of darkness and cruelty, 
over which brooded perpetual night, where reigned ma- 
lignant demons and where men were the miserable slaves 
of devils, into the garden of God, where all beautiful 
thoughts and pure loves and right principles bring forth 
harvests unto eternal life, and where men, redeemed from 
spiritual slavery and invested with the liberty of God's 
children, rejoice in their paradise restored and in hope of 
immortal honor and blessedness. 

Wherever the gospel is preached God is always work- 
ing in the hearts of men by the power of the truth as it 



SALVATION OF THE SOUL. 



267 



is in Jesus. The light of this truth is streaming out upon 
the world from the open Bible, from the Christian pulpit, 
from the lives of the pious; and God is hereby working 
miracles of quickening and regeneration and salvation in 
Europe^ and America, in Asia and Africa, and in the is- 
lands of the sea. The truth as it is in Jesus has been 
shining upon you all your lives, and God has been work- 
ing in you by its enlightening influence and saving en- 
ergy ever since as little children you knelt at your mother's 
knee and learned to lisp in prayer the name of the Sa- 
viour. 

3. God works in you by his spirit. The Holy Ghost 
is the superintendent of fall the affairs of God in his 
relation to the souls of men. The work of salvation is 
wholly ministered by Him. It is He who clothes providen- 
tial events with spiritual power, gives their influence a 
spiritual direction and brings forth spiritual issues out 
of natural causes. It is He who invests the forces of na- 
ture and all our experiences of joy and sorrow with a minis- 
try and blessing to our souls. It is He who opens the eyes 
of our understanding and enables us to see a beauty in 
flowers that is more than the beauty of form and color, 
and a glory in the firmament that is brighter than that of 
sun and moon and stars, and in the majestic movements of 
nature a majesty superior to that of nature. It is the Holy 
Spirit in the truth as it is in Jesus that makes it quick and 
powerful and sharper than a two-edged sword in its con- 
flicts with the evils of our hearts; that interpenetrates its 
enlightening beams with the fervent rays that melt our 
hardness down, and imparts to its revelations of God the 
spiritual power by which it sanctifies character and saves 



208 



SALVATION OF THE SOUL. 



the soul. By whatever instrumentality salvation is 
wrought in human experience the Holy Ghost is the living, 
personal agent who does this glorious work. 

God works in men by His spirit to save them, not only 
by means of providence and gospel truth, but by by His di- 
rect, personal influence. The Holy Ghost is not shut up 
to the employment of a medium through which to touch 
and savingly affect the souls of men. He has immediate 
access to all the secret places of thought and motive in 
human nature. He lays his hand upon all the hidden 
springs of feeling and action in the sinner's heart. It is by 
His immediate influence that He convicts, converts and 
sanctifies. It is by His personal indwelling that He car- 
ries forward the work of grace to the day of perfection. 
N" ot only is the germ of every holy principle implanted in 
the believers heart by Him, but it grows to maturity by the 
vital force which He imparts, and bears fruit by the spirit- 
ual energy that flows from Him. It is He who begins, 
continues and completes that most glorious work of God, 
the transformation of a sinner into a saint. Whoever 
knows what unregenerate human nature is, and what are 
the spiritual experiences, the character and life of him who, 
by regeneration, has become a new creature in Christ 
Jesus, can no more doubt the direct agency of God in 
this new creature that he can doubt the agency of God in 
the creation of sun and moon and stars. The truly Christ- 
like man is a living monument of divine grace, a manifest 
example and demonstration of the transforming, saving 
I>o\ver of the Holy Ghost. "It is God that worketh in you 
both to will and to do of His good pleasure." 



SALVATION OF THE SOUL. 



269 



4. This working of God in you by His providence and 
truth and spirit is the ground of the apostle's appeal to 
you to work out your own salvation. He does not say 
with a certain class* of religious teachers, "you need do 
nothing to save yourselves, because God has undertaken 
to save you, and salvation is his work." On the contrary, 
He exhorts you to "work out your own salvation for," be- 
cause of the fact that, "it is God that worketh in you." 

He works "in you to will and to do" — that is, He works 
in you to the end that you may will righteousness and do 
righteousness; but He neither wills for you, nor can He 
put forth that volition by which, to be saved, you must 
renounce sin and consecrate yourselves to a holy life; He 
neither does nor can do the work demanded of you and 
without which your salvation is impossible. He can not re- 
pent of your sins ; and except you repent you shall perish. 
He can not believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ with your 
heart unto righteousness; and unless you believe you are 
lost. He can not obey divine law for you; and unless you 
obey the law dooms you to eternal death. His working 
in you makes it possible for you to will and to do that 
which shall issue in eternal life; but neither the fact of 
His working in you nor any measure of power with which 
He does or can work, supersedes the necessity that is upon 
you to work out your own salvation. It is only when you 
diligently co-operate with His grace and spirit that His 
working in you avails anything towards delivering you 
from sin and making you holy in character. 

The truth as it is in Jesus may enlighten your minds 
and quicken your conscience, but it can never perify your 
hearts unless you receive it into your faith and incorporate 



270 



SALVATION OF THE SOUL. 



it in your life. The Spirit may reprove you of sin an J 
righteousness, may profoundly impress you with your guilt 
and your need of a new heart, but lie can never work 
regeneration in your experience until you repent of sin 
and believe upon Christ with your heart unto righteous- 
ness. If you have already been regenerated by the Holy 
Ghost unto righteousness, and He is working in you to sanc- 
tify you wholly, you are in fact only so far sanctified as 
you deny self, take up the cross daily, and follow Christ. 

The personal experience of every genuine Christian here 
present fully illustrates the truth of what I am preach- 
ing. It is probable that not one of you improved the first 
gracious influences that wrought in your heart. The 
Spirit reproved you of sin and righteousness many times 
before you renounced the one and began to follow after 
the other; and, as you know, the working of God in you 
did not go beyond the point of conviction until by re- 
pentance and prayer and faith you became a worker to- 
gether with Him. And while, since your conversion, Hi* 
spirit has been beforehand with you in all the steps of 
saving experience, yet, from the beginning until now, you 
have been really saved only so far as you have worked 
out your own salvation. Idlers in this divinely appointed 
field of labor doom themselves to spiritual pauperism and 
eternal death; therefore "work out your own salvation 
with fear and trembling." Repent of sin. With full pur- 
pose of heart, set yourselves, in reliance upon divine grace, 
to break every wrong habit of thought, of temper, of con- 
versation and conduct. Fight against every evil lust and 
passion that has found place in your hearts; and renew 
the fight daily until the victory is won. Learn to do well. 



SALVATION OF THE SOUL. 



271 



Wait upon God in earnest, inportunate prayer. Live 
the life of faith in Christ. Discharge every Christian duty 
with conscientious fidelity. Improve every opportunity to 
do good -and get good. Cultivate patience, humility, meek- 
ness, charity and the faith that lives by every word that 
proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Deny self, take up 
the cross daily and follow Christ. 

"Work out your own salvation" — that is, give yourselves 
fully and diligently to the achievement of a holy charac- 
ter; <a character strong in all virtues, beautiful in all spir- 
itual excellence; a character that bears upon every ele- 
ment of it the image of Christ's character. The doing of 
this work is no easy thing, and is not to be accomplished in 
an hour, or week, or month. It is a work that will 
tax all your spiritual resources and that will call into ex- 
ercise all your spiritual energies; a work that you must 
begin anew every morning, and persevere in throughout 
every day as long as life lasts. No spiritual sluggard can 
attain salvation. Softness and self-indulgence are incom- 
patible with the development of a holy character; there- 
fore, "give all diligence to make your calling and election 
sure." 

5. It is evident from the order in which the words 
of the text occur that the apostle intended to urge the 
fact that it is God which worketh in you as a peculiarly 
strong reason for the earnestness and solicitude with which 
He exhorts you to work. If the arch-angel were to appear 
to you in all the splendor of his archangelic glory, and say 
to you, the great God, your Father in heaven, has sent 
me down to the earth to aid you in working out your sal- 
vation, you would know that the peril threatening must be 



272 



SALVATION OF THE SOUL. 



appalling, and that the demand upon you for instant and 
diligent effort to escape is too urgent to be trifled with 
for a single moment. If the glorified spirit of an apostle 
were commissioned of God to work with you in saving your 
soul, with what trembling eagerness would you listen to 
every suggestion of this heavenly helper, and with what 
unflagging industry would you work while He worked with 
you. The coming of either an apostle or archangel on 
such a mission as this would alarm the most stupidly in- 
different among you, would stir the energies of the most 
lethargic; would drive out of your mind every excuse you 
have ever urged for putting off this great work to a future 
day, and startle you into instant and intense effort to es^ 
cape eternal death and win eternal life. 

Beloved, it is not the glorified spirit of an apostle, it 
is not the archangel or a multitude of angels, but the Grod 
of angels and apostles who works in you to save you from 
sin and hell. What is that mysterious power with which 
the voices of nature sometimes startle you, waking you 
from your worldly dreams', and turning your thoughts to- 
wards things unseen and eternal? What is that spiritual 
power with which the truth as it is in Jesus sometimes 
alarms conscience and melts your heart in contrition? 
What is that strange influence, traceable to none of your 
surroundings, that sometimes lays hold upon you in the 
midst of your earthly ambitions and pleasures and plans, 
impresses you with the vanity of the life you are living, 
and inspires you with an earnest longing for somewhat 
that is higher, purer, better than anything the world has 
to give? What is it? It is Grod working in you to save 
you. From his throne in heaven he sees and pities you in 



SALVATION OF THE SOUL. 



273 



your sins, beholds the ruin that threatens your guilty soul, 
and, moved by infinite compassion, He condescends to 
work in you and work with you to deliver you from the 
destruction to which you are exposed. "Work out your 
own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God that 
worketh in you both to will and to do." 

6. Mark the fact that He worketh in you "of His 
good pleasure." What He is doing to save you is not of 
debt, but of grace. If He were at this instant to take 
His Holy Spirit from you and leave you to perish in your 
sins, you could not charge Him with cruelty ; for ever since 
you were little children you have resisted His spirit, hard- 
ened your hearts against Him and refused to yield to His 
saving influences. If He were now to withdraw the offer 
of His mercy and ordain that you should never again feel 
the touches of His grace, you could not think Him unjust, 
for all your life you have rejected His mercy and done 
despite to His grace. It is "of His good pleasure" that He 
works in you to sanctify and save you. It is because the 
awful doom that overhangs you and which you can not 
escape without His aid, appeals to His pity that His Spirit 
bears with you so patiently and so graciously strives to 
lead you to repentance. "Work out your own salvation 
with fear and trembling, for it is God that worketh in 
you both to will and to do, of His good pleasure. 

Work out your salvation. Repent of sin: turn from 
every evil way; believe upon Christ; deny self; take up 
the cross daily; be instant in prayer; study the work 
of God that you may know your duty; and, knowing your 
duty, do it; seek to understand what are your privileges 
in Christ, and eagerly avail yourselves of them; strive to 



274 



SALVATION OF THE SOUL. 



enter in at the straight gate, and, having entered in, press 
onward and upward along the narrow way which leadeth 
unto life. 

"Work out your own salvation." Destruction does not 
threaten your property; it threatens you. It is your own 
proper selfhood. Your sentient soul; you, your very self, 
that is' in peril of the damnation of hell. "The wages of 
sin is death," death in the abodes of eternal death; and 
you have earned these wages. "The soul that sinneth it 
shall die;" and you have sinned. "He that believeth not 
shall be damned;" and you have lived in unbelief till now. 
But God, in infinite mercy, has made it possible for you 
to be saved ; and, inspired by the Holy Spirit, His apostle 
writes', "Work out your own salvation with fear and trem- 
bling, for it is God that worketh in you both to will and 
to do of His good pleasure." "'Work out your own salva- 
tion." Salvation! Thank God that we ever heard this 
word. Salvation; salvation from the guilt and defilement, 
the power and presence of sin. Salvation ! purity of ho"*rt 
cleanness of conscience, holiness of character, Christlike- 
ness of spirit. Salvation — a whiteness of soul that can ap- 
pear in the very presence of God unabashed; the right to 
go in through the gates into the eternal city; a saintliness 
of spirit that shall enable you to stand and rejoice in the 
midst of the unveiled glory of Godhead. It is this great 
salvation that claims your efforts, and, while God works 
in you and Ik cause He works in you, put forth all the en- 
ergy of your redeemed souls in holy willing and holy work- 
ing. Salvation from sin, salvation that issues in the bless- 
edness of heaven is offered you in the gospel. Labor for 



SALVATION" OF THE SOUL. 27 5 

this as never miser labored for gold. Strive for this as 
never soldier on battlefield strove for liberty and i ome and 
loved ones. "Work out your own salvation with fear and 
trembling, for it is God that worketh in you both to will 
and to do of His good pleasure." 



SERMON XIX. 



MAN'S TRUE REST CONDITIONED UPON PERFECTION, 
ANJ ATTAINED ONLY IN HEAVEN. 

"For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to 
come." Hebrews xiii:14. 

Man is the most restless being of whom we have any 
knowledge ; but underneath all his restlessness and seeming 
love of changes is a deep longing for rest. Indeed, the 
changeful life he lives, his moving from place to place, his 
ceaseless effort to alter in some way the circumstances 
around him, are but indications of his desire to attain some 
state in which no inclination to change shall disturb the 
quiet of his perfect contentment. His whole life on earth 
is a restless seeking after rest, rest that is never attained 
and that is not attainable in this world. "Here have we 
no continuing city." 

In political, social and domestic life we see frequent 
and great changes ; changes everywhere and in many things 
into which human life enters as an element or upon which 
human character has an influence; changes that result 
from the desire for stability — a restlessness which, at the 
bottom, is the soul's longing for rest. 

The history of earthly governments is little else than a 
record of revolutions that have covered the plains of the 
past with the wrecks of empires and kingdoms and repub- 
lics that have been overthrown to make way for others. 
Almost every generation makes some change in the funda- 
mental law of the State; and this, because no government 



TRUE REST ATTAINED IA T HEAVEN. 277 

has ever been founded that was so nearly perfect that 
no change in its constitution was desirable. Society is al- 
ways changing — changing in its inner life, in its manners' 
and customs; and this, because society has never yet been 
organized upon such principles as to secure its possible 
perfection. We are all, as far as' we are able, making 
changes in our homes; and this, because our homes have 
never realized our ideal of what homes ought to be. 

A perfect government, a perfect society, a perfect home, 
one in which no conceivable change would be an improve- 
ment, — it is this we seek in these changes ; not consciously 
perhaps, but driven thereto by the inherent, divinely im- 
planted necessity there is in our human nature to aspire to 
and seek after the perfect. This we shall find only in 
heaven. There alone is the perf ect government, the per- 
fect society, the perfect home, in which the soul of man for 
the first time in its history shall find perfect rest. 

It is probable however that the sacred writer does not in 
the text refer so much to the changes that we ourselves 
bring about as to those that come to us without our choos- 
ing. Whether man wills it so or not mutability marks his 
whole earthly life. However nearly content he may be in 
any state attained, however much he may desire its contin- 
uance, it soon passes away and is: succeeded by another as 
inconstant as the one that has passed away. Whatever 
our desires on the subject, we "have not here any continu- 
ing city;" for. though the minor changes that occur during 
life be few in some instances as compared with other, yet 
the great change that comes' in death, comes to all. The 
other changes to which I have referred, the fluctuations in 
men's fortunes, the alteration in their circumstances, the 



278 



TRUE REST ATTAINED IX HEAVEN". 



mutations in civil, social and domestic life, are but fore- 
runners of this great final change, — heralds kindly sent 
before to preach to us men, saying, "inake ye ready to de- 
part for this is not your rest." To this gracious warning, 
so often defeated by the events of providence, the religious 
state of the righteous gives practical answer: "here have 
they no continuing city," they recognize the fact, and are 
seeking one to come. 

It cannot but be profitable to us, profitable in many ways, 
to meditate upon the mutability of our earthly estate. 

1. Our surroundings change. They are not in all par- 
ticulars the same to-day that they were yesterday. They 
are scarcely in any particular the same that they were ten 
years ago. The old man can truly say that the world in 
which he is now living is different from that in which he 
lived in childhood. Nothing around him has remained un- 
changed but the world's constancy in changing. The 
places of our abode, whether in the city or country, change. 
A few years' absence renders it impossible for us to recog- 
nize localities with which we were once most familiar. 
The old homestead to which our father and mother moved 
and where we were born, has* decayed and fallen into ruins. 
The old school-house, where we learned our first lessons, is 
gone. The spreading trees under which we played in 
childhood have been cut down. There are old fields now, 
covered with broomsedge, where stood the virgin forest in 
the days of our youth. These changes have taken place 
so gradually that wo did not notice them in their progress; 
but they have gone so far as to have obliterated almost 
every trace of the world in which our childhood was passed. 



TRUE REST ATTAINED IN HEAVEN. 



279 



Other changes have occurred that have touched some of 
you much mOre nearly than any of these. There are those 
of you perhaps who interited large possessions in early 
life you never knew a wish ungratified. Whatever your 
eyes desired, that you gave your hearts richly to enjoy. 
But a change has come, — a change that has swept away, not 
only your fortune and the luxuries it procured, but well- 
nigh all the comfort of life, and you now know what hard, 
pinching poverty means. There are those of you perhaps 
who began life in the humble log-cabin of a very poor man, 
but, by industry and economy and wise investment, you 
have amassed riches, and now enjoy luxuries and a social 
distinction to which your father was a stranger. Your 
worldly success has overpassed the hopes of your youth, 
and yet I doubt not that often in the silent watches of the 
night you have felt in your hearts that you would gladly 
give all that you possess for the innocency happiness of the 
boy who played under the lowly roof of that poor man, 
your father, who sleeps now in an unmarked grave. 

2. Our associations change. The father and mother 
whom our infant-hearts first learn to love sicken and die. 
Mine have passed away. The noble f ather, whom I revered 
next to God, the beautiful, loving mother, dearer to me than 
life itself, have gone away out of the earth. Yours perhaps 
have also bidden you their last adieu. The friends of our 
youth are in few instances the friends of middle life; in 
scarcely any instance the friends of old age. One by one 
they move to distant homes; one by one they die, until of 
those who joined in our childhood sports none remain to sit 
by the fireside with us when grey hairs are upon our brow. 
Whole troops of boys and girls grew up with you also who 



280 



TRUE REST ATTAINED IX HEAVEN. 



have reached old age and were your familiar associates, 
your bosom friends, forty, fifty years ago. Where are they 
now? — Will and Ben and John, Annie and Mary and Jen- 
nie, — where are they ? The few that remain you can count 
on the fingers of one hand; the others, where are they? 
They are gone, nearly all of them gone to the grave. The 
bright eyes have become dim, the ruddy cheeks have paled 
and turned to dust ; — the warm hearts are cold now beneath 
the coffin's lid. The faces' of the friends of your youth no 
longer greet you in the home or social circle. The gener- 
ous hearted boy, noble in every instinct, whose friendship 
you trusted and never found to fail you; who, though but 
a boy, stood by you in every time of difficulty or danger, 
like a man ; the lovely girl, the influence of whose piety and 
refinement blessed your youth, long ago, while yet young, 
fell on sleep, — that sleep from which there is no waking, 
this side the morning of the resurrection ; and their names' 
are mentioned now only in the softened tones of hearts that 
still mourn their death. Other friends have succeeded 
these of early life, true and tried, but, O God, how the 
heart turns back to those who were parted from us long 
years ago and whose cheery smile and hearty hand-grasp 
shall greet us no more this side the river of death. O be- 
loved, those who made our world when we were boys and 
girls are gone, and the world has never been the same to us 
since they left it, and never can be. 

3. We ourselves change. Our personal identity re- 
mains imchanged, it is true, but upon every one of us, phys- 
ically, mentally morally many and great changes have 
passed. The shares of time have ploughed deep furrows in 
tiie faces of some among you; the frosts of many winters 



TEUE REST ATTAINED IN HEAVEN. 



281 



have whitened your locks; the keepers of the house are be- 
ginning to tremble with the on-coining palsy of age; they 
that look out of the windows are darkened; the daughters 
of music are brought low; the grinders cease, because they 
are few; the strong men bow themselves; desire fails, and 
the day is near to come when the dust shall return to the 
dust whence it was taken, and the spirit to God who gave 
it. And O, the spirit, my brother, my sister the spirit, 
when that returns to God who gave it, how will it be with 
you ? 

For good or for evil your characters have been changing 
all your life. Experiences of joy and sorrow; the disap- 
pointment and fruition of earthly hopes; contact with the 
world ; observation of fortune's fickleness, of human honesty 
and human treachery have all left their impress upon you. 
Your life plans, your ruling loves and principles are not 
what they once were. You have been growing more 
earthly, selfish and sensual, or more heavenly minded and 
Christ-like, and so, through all the years of the past, you 
have been ascending the spiritual heights that lead up to 
the holy and happy city of God, or going down towards' the 
dark, dismal abode of lost souls. Which way are you 
going? 

4. But all these changes are harbingers of another, that 
final change which comes in death and comes to all. For 
every one of you somewhere in the near or distant future 
looms inevitable death. You may bring your homes as 
near the perfection of your ideal homes as possible; you 
may be very happy in them, and it may be the desire of 
your heart to abide in them forever; but 9ome day, you 
shall go out of these homes and never come back, — no, not 
08) 



282 



TRUE REST ATTAINED IN HEAVEN. 



go out of them, but be carried out and never return. You 
may gather about you associations most congenial and de- 
lightful, and you may long for their continuance, but they 
shall all be broken up bye and bye. You may never go away 
from the place of your birth; there contented, you may 
there remain ; the friends of your youth may be the friends 
of your old age ; the stream of your life may flow peacefully 
on, its' surface scarcely disturbed by a ripple; but from that 
place you shall go away ere long, and your present resorts 
shall see you no more ; from the friends of a life-time you 
shall separate soon, and they shall never look upon you 
again in the flesh; the peacefully flowing stream of your 
life shall be broken as it plunges over the precipice that 
hangs' above the delta of death. You may fence yourselves 
around against the attacks of disease by the utmost temper- 
ance and prudence; you may repair the breaches made in 
your physical constitution by sickness with the utmost skill 
of the most skilful of physicians; you may cling to life and 
home and friends with the utmost tenacity; but death shall 
come at last ; shall break through all your defences, cut in 
sunder all the ties that bind you to the earth, and bear you 
away willing or unwilling out into the eternal world, — 
making true the word which declares that "here have you 
no continuing city." 

Bring this truth home to your own hearts. You must 
all have personal experience of it; and it is' not wise in you 
to dismiss the subject from your minds with some general 
reflection upon man's mortality. Each one of you shall die. 
Some day, some night, the angel of doom shall fold his 
wings at your door; shall enter your room where you lie 
stricken down by disease; shall grasp your heart-strings, 



TRUE BEST ATTAINED IN HEAVEN. 



283 



and, with unrelenting force shall break them in sunder, one 
by one. For no wail of anguish from the lips of wife or 
husband, from brother or sister or child will his fatal 
grasp relax. Commissioned of God to execute sentence of 
death upon you, without faltering he shall do his appointed 
tisk. Your cherished plans may none of them have been 
accomplished; your business may demand attention that 
only you can give; your family may be plunged by your 
death, not only into deepest grief, but into deepest poverty 
and want; there may be a thousand reasons to urge why you 
should be spared yet a little; but no plea for longer life 
shall avail anything then. There in that darkened room, 
amidst weeping loved ones, the work of the angel of doom 
shall go forward; moment by moment shall near its' end, 
until glazing eyes and pulseless heart are interpreted by the 
whispered announcement, "he is dead, she has breathed her 
last," — and it shall be you, your body lying there dead and 
your spirit gone, O whither? 

Seeing that you must go hence it is not wisdom in you 
but the most fatal unwisdom, to plan and toil and live as if 
this were your eternal home. It behooves you to make 
your life on earth a journey to heaven ; to give all diligence 
to secure a title to a mansion in that city to come whose 
maker and builder is God. Not all men do this. Unaf- 
fected by the steady approach of death, they seem to feel 
and certainly act as if they were never to die. They are 
soon going away from their earthly homes to return to them 
no more ; are soon to bid a last farewell to earthly friends, 
and yet they are not concerned about the awful prospect of 
becoming homeless and friendless wanderers in the realms 
of eternal night. God save you from folly like this. 



284 TRUE REST ATTAINED IN HEAVEN. 

The text is descriptive of an altogether different class of 
men, who, mindful of their mortality, knowing that here 
they have no continuing city are seeking one to come. 

5. To this city to come I now call your attention. 
There is only one characteristic of it mentioned in the text. 
It is a "continuing city." It abides forever because it is 
perfect. Want of stability implies want of perfection. A 
perfect government once established on earth would endure 
forever. In a perfect social organism or a perfect home no 
change would be desired and none would be made. We 
speak of man's love of novelties and desire for changes as if 
these were inherent elements in his nature; but it is not 
that which is new that we prize most highly. It is the old 
friend, the old home, the old familiar scenes that are dear- 
est to our hearts, and, if we change the old for the new, 
it is not because of the oldness of the one or the newness of 
the other, but because we have learned the imperfectness 
of the old, and hope to attain at least an approximation to 
the perfect in the new. All the changes that we make of 
bur own motion originate in the fact that God has so con- 
stituted us that we can never rest in anything less than the 
perfect. 

And the changes that come to us without our seeking are 
the result of imperfection. It is not the perfect body that 
dies, but the body wasted by disease, worn out by age, or 
hurt in some vital part. A perfect body never died, a per- 
fect body cannot die. Impermanence is the sure indication 
of imperfection. 

Xow, the "city to come" is a "continuing city," stable, 
eternal, because it is perfect. There is the perfect govern- 
ment, the perfect society, the perfect home, the perfect 



TEUE REST ATTAINED IN HEAVEN. 285 

man, and, of necessary consequence, the permanent govern- 
ment, the enduring social life, the abiding home and the 
immortal man. 

God is King there, and His kingdom is f ounded upon im- 
mutable right, is permeated by the spirit of holy love and is 
administered by a wisdom that never errs. Power is a 
necessary element in the maintenance of human govern- 
ments, and one that needs to be called into frequent exer- 
cise, because want of wisdom and righteousness in those who 
enact or those who execute the law excites rebellion from 
within or war from without. But though omnipotence is 
upon throne in heaven it will never need to bare its arm to 
maintain the government of God there, for the Ruler is 
perfect and all His subjects are perfect. And under the 
perfect government of the perfect King, His perfect saints 
shall live in perfect liberty forever. 

There is the perfect society. No personal quarrels, no 
family feuds, no party strifes shall ever disturb its peace. 
No antagonisms of personal interests shall ever inject dis- 
cord into its harmonious relations. Doubtless every saint 
will be characterized by the mental and moral qualities 
that now difference him from every other saint. J ohn will 
be John forever, and Peter will never lose his identity. 
Unquestionably there are differences in degrees of glory 
among the inhabitants of heaven. There are those who, 
because they loved God with pure hearts fervently and 
labored much and suffered much and sacrificed much for 
love's sake, shall come forth from their graves in great hon- 
or and shall be crowned with great glory. And there are 
those, who, because they loved God with purer hearts more 
fervently and labored more and suffered more and sacri- 



286 



TRUE REST ATTAINED IX HEAVEX. 



floed more for love's sake shall come forth from, their 
graves in greater honor and shall be crowned with greater 
glory; but perfect love to God shall draw all saints ever 
nearer to Him and ever nearer to each other and bind them 
together in the perfect concord of the perfect society. 

There is the perleci nonie, because there dwells the per- 
fect Father. Our homes never realize our ideal of what 
homes ought to be, because we lack the resources, it may be 
in wisdom, or in money, or in force of character necessary 
to the end. Our children do not possess the manners, the 
affections, the principles that would fill our hearts with 
constant joyfulness, for alas^ we have been lacking in the 
ability to mould their characters as they ought to have been 
moulded. Our homes are all very far from being perfect 
homes because we are all very far from being perfect fath- 
ers. But, in the heavenly home, the Father who is perfect 
dwells, perfect in wisdom, perfect in goodness, perfect in 
love, unlimited in resources; and the presence there of the 
perfect Father insures the presence of all that constitutes 
the perfect home. Every object looked upon there by His 
children leaves upon their minds and hearts an image of 
grace and beauty that is a joy forever. Every sound that 
greets them as they get home from their earthly exile, is, 

"Music, that gentlier on the spirit lies 
"Than tired eyelids upon tired eyes," 

music that, while calming every fevered pulse and throb- 
bing anxiety like the touch of a mother's hand, thrills every 
soul and nerve with pleasure and quickens every mental 
and spiritual faculty with heavenly energy. 



TRUE REST ATTAINED IN HEAVEN. 



287 



That which insures permanency of the perfect 
society and home in heaven is the fact that there man, the 
child of God, is perfect. There, all the children of the 
heavenly Father, seeing Him as He is^ beholding the 
brightness of His glory in the face of the glorified Christ, 
are changed by the power of that vision into His likeness. 
There, spotlessly pure in heart, flawlessly holy in character, 
they dwell in God, and nothing shall ever mar the blessed- 
ness of their heart-history, or disturb the harmony o £ their 
intercourse with each other. No ungrateful or disobedient 
daughter shall ever cause distress or disquietude in the 
heavenly home. No prodigal son shall ever wander away, 
leaving anxiety and sorrow to keep their weary watching 
and waiting for his return. There the sons and daughters 
of the Lord Most High realize the divine ideal of perfect 
manhood, or perfect womanhood ; and there along with the 
tireless energy and power of an eternal life, the calmness of 
an eternal and perfect peace enters and keeps their minds 
and hearts. Perfection reigns within and without, perfec- 
tion in personal character and social life; perfection in the 
Sovereign and in all His subjects; perfection in home af- 
fections and home associations; and attaining these, man at- 
tains permanency in character and estate; becomes a citizen 
of the continuing city, an inmate of the eternal home of the 
soul. 

6. These being the essential characteristics of the city 
to come, it is evident that seeking and journeying towards it 
are moral processes. We do not go to heaven by lapse of 
time or by locomotion through space. The man who has 
lived a hundred years is not for this reason alone any 
nearer heaven than when he was a boy. The man who has 



288 TKUE REST ATTAINED IX HEAVEN. 

climbed the loftiest mountain peak on earth is no nearer 
heaven than when he stood in the valley below. If we are 
seeking the city to come intelligently, we are seeking it by 
the diligent use of the means of grace and the faithful dis- 
charge of every Christian duty; and we are going to 
heaven, if at all, by growth in grace, by spiritual develop- 
ment, by increase of heavenly mindedness. Every time 
you draw nigh to God in prayer and enter into conscious 
communion with Him you get nearer to heaven. Every 
time you overcome temptation, deny self and cultivate holy 
loves and principles, you take a step in the way. You make 
a sacrifice to glorify God and bless men, you go forward 
towards the heavenly home. By just so much as you be- 
come Christ-like in the spirit of your mind, by just so much 
clo you journey heavenward. 

And now in conclusion, let me ask, Are you any nearer 
heaven to-day than you were ten years ago? Are you 
meeker, more gentle, more patient, less worldly, purer in 
thought, more spiritual in your loves and aspirations ? Is 
your faith stronger? Is your love for God more fervent, 
and your communion with Him closer and more constant ? 
Are you any nearer heaven to-day than you were ten years 
ago? If you are, then I do most heartily congratulate 
you and bid you God speed. Keep in the way ; by prayer, 
by faith, by self-denial, by cross-bearing, by the daily fol- 
lowing of Christ, press forward until the gates af the city 
of God swing inward and all heaven's inhabitants welcome 
you home. If you are not nearer heaven to-day than you 
were ten years ago then it would have been well for you if 
you had gone to sleep ten years ago and had not waked up 
yet. So far as the true end of life is concerned you have 



TRUE BEST ATTAINED IN HEAVEN. 



289 



wasted and worse than wasted, ten years of life. O re- 
deem the time that remains. See to it that while time is 
bearing you towards eternity that faith in Christ, works of 
piety towards God and works of charity towards men, bear 
yon on, ever nearer the holy and happy city of the saints. 



SERMON XX. 



LOOKING AT THE THINGS WHICH ARE NOT SEEN. 

"■While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the 
things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are 
temporal, hut c*ie things which are not seen are eternal." II Co- 
rinthians iv:18. 

As ships are made to have a place in two elements, air 
and water, so men were made to be the inhabitants of two 
worlds, at one and the same time, — the world that is seen 
and temporal and the world that is unseen and eternal. It 
is evident from the construction of a ship that the purpose 
of her builder is wholly frustrated if she be altogether 
lifted out of the water, or altogether sunk in the water. 
It is equally evident from the nature of man that the di- 
vine purpose in his creation is defeated, if, in thought 
and affection, he lives altogether in the world that is seen 
and temporal or in the world that is unseen and eternal. 
An ascetic, dead to all temporal interests, and a sensualist, 
dead to all spiritual realities, both sin against the laws of 
their own being, and both set at naught the end the Crea- 
tor had in view in making them men, — the one by vainly 
trying to live the life of a disembodied spirit, while yet 
in the flesh, — the other by wickedly consenting to be a 
mere animal. 

Man holds relations to the things which are seen, and 
he cannot safely neglect the duties that grow out of these 
relations. At the same time his most important relations 
and most sacred duties appertain to the invisible world, 



LOOKING AT THINGS NOT SEEN. 291 

*and his life ought to be ordered with constant reference to 
the things which are unseen. 

But carnally minded men are submerged in the world 
that is seen and temporal. Neither in any end for which 
they strive, nor in any motive that controls them, do they 
ever rise to the level of the world that is unseen and eter- 
nal. They are as a ship that is sunk in the sea. She was 
made to be in the water, as' is evident from her hull; but, 
At the same time, to be above the water, as is evident from 
her masts and sails and the arrangements of her cabin for 
the comfort of men. But she has gone down to the bottom 
of the deep, and the shark swims through her saloons and 
the devil-fish floats' between her decks; no breeze ever fills 
her sodden sails and no man enters her cabin. 

All men were made, while living in the world that is 
Been and temporal to have a higher life in the world that 
is unseen and eternal, to be controlled by spiritual princi- 
ples, to be inspired by spiritual hopes, to love the Father 
of spirits supremely, and to endure as seeing Him who is 
invisible. But unspiritual men, immersed in the business 
and pleasures of this lower world, ignore the spiritual 
ends of their existence and are strangers to the spiritual 
experiences that constitute the highest life of man. They 
are spiritually blind and deaf and callous. The spiritual 
realities which demand and deserve their earnest and con- 
stant attention, they do not see. None of their actions or 
motives of action have reference to the sublime spiritual 
achievements to which they are called of God. The voices 
that call to them from the upper world they do not hear. 
They practically deny the existence of the Father of spir- 
its in whom they live and move and have their being. The 



292 



LOOKING AT THINGS NOT SEEN. 



eternal verities of the unseen world are to them as though 
thy were not. They are carnal, of the earth earthly, walk 
after the flesh and mind not the things of the spirit. 

The text is descriptive of an essentially different class 
of men. It is true that the spiritual mindedness described 
by the apostle is treated in this place only as the condition 
upon which the afflictions of this present time work out 
for believers' a far more exceeding and eternal weight of 
glory, but it is clearly intimated here and is elsewhere 
explicitly affirmed that this spiritual mindedness is char- 
acteristic of all true Christians through the whole course 
of their Christian experience. Looking at the things which 
are not seen; or, in other words', ordering the life with 
reference to spiritual realities, is the ruling habit of 
Christ's disciples. 

1. The word "look" as used in the text means more than 
merely to see. Applied to natural vision, it signifies fixed 
attention, the steady and prolonged concentration of the 
powers of vision upon the object looked at. We are in 
the midst of charming scenery ; all around us are things of 
beauty, shapely trees, lovely flowers, crystal streams, rain- 
bows upon waterfalls, mountain sides robed in green, 
mountain peaks covered with snow. For hours' we might 
stand here, drinking in delight from the view, yet singling 
out no one object whose beauty lends attractiveness to the 
scene. But our attention is called to some one thing that 
is conspicuously beautiful; we fix our eyes upon that; and, 
while we still see everything within the range of vision, 
we are looking only at that one thing. The sailor, coming 
in view of the light-house at the entrance to the harbor 
for which he *ails, looks steadily a1 that and nothing else. 



LOOKING AT THINGS NOT SEEN. '293 

There may be other lights nearer to him and more bril- 
liant, A hundred ships, outward bound, play their lan- 
terns as they pass by him, and the light from them all falls 
upon the retina of his eye and makes its impression there. 
He sees them every one, cannot avoid seeing them; and is 
so far influenced by them as to save his ship from colliding 
with those of whose whereabouts they warn him; but he 
does not look at them. He looks only at the steadfast light 
of the light-house upon his relative position to which de- 
pends his safe entrance into port. 

When used with reference to spiritual vision, the term 
"look" means the concentration of thought, of hope and 
love upon that we are said to look at; and, in saying that 
Christians "look not at the things which are seen, but at 
the things which are not seen," the apostle affirms that it 
is around spiritual things that their most ardent desires, 
their most fervent affections and most cherished hopes are 
centered; that, while temporal things are not and cannot 
be ignored by them, it is the spiritual interests with which 
these stand associated upon which their hearts are set. 
"We look not at the things which are seen, but at the 
things which are not seen," that is, the springs of our life 
are not in the visible, but the invisible world, — we live with 
principal regard to eternal realities, and refuse the domi- 
nant place in our thought and love to things that are tem- 
poral. 

2. "The things which are seen" are all those things 
about which the carnal man concerns himself, and with 
exclusive reference to which he lives. The beauty alone 
that commands his admiration is beauty upon which the 
natural eye delights to gaze — physical beauty. The har- 



294 



LOOKING AT THINGS NOT SEEN. 



niony that charms him is the harmony of sounds and col- 
ors — a harmony perceived by the senses and that gives 
pleasure only through the senses. The riches he covets 
are riches that can be handled and counted — material 
riches. The honors he seeks are the honors that gratify 
worldly vanity and ambition — honors that come from men. 
The pleasures' he seeks are pleasures derived from the grat- 
ification of sensuous passions or mental and social tastes, 

But the spiritually minded do not look at these "things 
which are seen," — that is, they do not set before them as 
the end for which they live the things that are visible and 
temporal. If they seek them it is not as their supreme 
good. They are not looking at them, but through and be- 
yond them to things unseen and eternal, which they esteem 
as incomparably more precious. 

That a genuine Christian does not look at "the things 
which are seen," in the sense which these words are used 
in the text, is evident from the fact that whenever it be- 
comes necessary to sacrifice his temporal interests in order 
to meet the obligations that grow out of his spiritual rela- 
tions he does not hesitate to make the sacrifice. The dif- 
ference between him and men of the world is not that he 
and they never seek the same things, but that what they 
seek as their chief good he seeks, if at all, as of secondary 
and comparatively little importance. 

3. We look not at the things which are seen, for the 
things which are seen are temporal." The most beautiful 
objects the eye ever beholds lose their beauty, fade and 
perish. The most exquisitely tuned instruments get out 
of time, and, instead of charming us with harmonious 
sounds, torture our nerves with discordant noises. Riches 



LOOKING AT THINGS NOT SEEX. 



295 



make to themselves' wings and fly away. They are the 
sport of storms, the fuel of fire, the prey of thieves, the 
playthings of fortune. The honors that come from men 
are held by a tenure so brittle that a change in the caprice 
of the fickle multitude snaps it in two. Whom the people 
crown to-day they may behead to-morrow. The pleasures 
of sense are like the flowers that in blooming begin to die. 
"The things that are seen are temporal;" but the spiritual 
man is consciously immortal, and therefore he cannot seek 
as his highest good that which he knows is doomed to decay 
and death. 

4. "We look not at the things which are seen, but at 
the things which are not seen," — the invisible realities of 
the spiritual world. This spiritual world is not bounded by 
the walls of new Jerusalem — the beautiful and blessed 
city of God. It is not confined to any locality, and is not 
dissociated in fact, or in the conceptions of the pious from 
the present life, or from any of its activities or interests. 
It has no boundaries, but is everywhere, in all its tremen- 
dous significance, because God is everywhere. It sur- 
rounds us in infancy, and youth, in manhood and old age. 
The visible world is our temporary abode; the invisible 
world is our eternal home. We can never pass out of it un- 
less we sink into non-existence or cease to be men. We may 
live as though it were not, and yet every moment of thought 
or passion in our souls wakes harshest discords or sweetest 
music throughout its limitless spaces. We may ignore its 
everlasting realities and yet our eternal destiny depends 
upon the relations we sustain towards them. We may 
despise its f adeless honors, its imperishable riches, its end- 
less blessedness, yet it is only by giving all diligence to 



296 



LOOKING AT THINGS NOT SEEN. 



make sure of the possession of them that we can save our- 
selves from everlasting shame and want and woe. We may 
imagine that the things which are seen are the only real 
things, and that the things which are unseen have no exist- 
ence except in the dreams of mystics, but we shall wake at 
last to the fact that what we think realities are vanishing 
shadows' and that what we think mere dreams are eternal 
realities. To this fact the spiritual man has already 
awaked. What men of the world count "the stuff that 
dreams are made of," unworthy of serious attention, he 
knows to be everlastingly sufficient and of priceless 
value. His spiritual eyes, opened by the touch of the 
finger of God, see things invisible to others, and he finds 
himself in the midst of spiritual surroundings so sublime 
and enduring that all temporal things seem empty and 
worthless in the comparison. 

1. On its' earthward side the spirit world is filled with 

the stern realities of battle, of victory and defeat, of glory 
and shame. Man's spiritual nature is a territory where 
the powers of good and evil are engaged in ceaseless war. 

No uniformed and epauletted leaders are here seen, no 
glitttering of carnal weapons in the sunlight, no rolling 
volumes of smoke. The roar of artillery is not heard on 
spiritual battlefields, nor measured tramp of marching 
hosts, nor thunder of charging cavalry. . There is nothing 
here to remind one of "the pomp and circumstance of glor- 
ious war." The conflicts that enlist the energies of a Paul 
or a Wesley arc not such as call forth the genius of a 
Caesar or a Napoleon. The battles fought on spiritual 
fields are rarely mentioned by the average historian, and 
yet they involve more than the lair of nations. 



LOOKING AT THINGS NOT SEEN. 297 

Soldiers of the cross are waging a war upon the issues of 
which depend the highest interests and the eternal destiny 
of the whole human race. These spiritual heroes, eleep- 
lessly vigilant, armed with the sword of the Spirit having 
on the shield of faith and the breast-plate of righteousness 
are every day in your homes and places of business, win- 
ning victories greater, in their far-reaching and glorious 
consequences, than any that were ever won upon battle- 
fields where the armies of nations met in conflict. The 
triumph of the humble deacon, St. Stephen, a martyr for 
righteousness* sake, meant more for the world than the 
spread of Grecian civilization by all the conquests of an 
Alexander. Had he failed in that hour, saved his life by 
surrendering to the powers of darkenss, we should probably 
have lost the incalculable benefits that have come to us 
from the ministry of the great apostle to the Gentiles. 
The defeat of those who fight under the banner of Christ 
would overwhelm our race in a disaster from which there 
could be no recovery. Their overthrow would leave man- 
kind at the mercy of demons, and Satan would rule the 
world. But, blessed be God, they follow a Captain who 
leads to certain victory and their ultimate triumph shall 
be the salvation of all the ends of the earth. 

On the other hand, there are souls of men in league with 
wicked spirits, fighting under the black flag of the prince 
of darkness, resisting the Holy Ghost, — battling against 
conscience, and winning victories that doom the victors 
to eternal infamy. In business houses, where employees 
are taught that success in business counts for more than 
fidelity to right principles; in homes, where the example 
of godless parents lures their children into paths of sin; 

19) 



298 



LOOKING AT THINGS NOT SEEN. 



in bar-rooms and brothels and gambling dens, recruiting 
stations all of them, for the armies of hell, the young are 
enlisted to war against God, and they go forth trained sol- 
diers, equipped for the fight, to give battle to the armies 
of the Lord. 

These spiritual battles are not seen by the natural eye; 
and there are those who seem to think that no such battles 
are ever fought, or, if fought, are of little or no importance. 
Their spiritual senses are closed; so that, though in some 
sort, actors in the strife, they are unconscious of its prog- 
ress and indifferent to its issues. They are as would have 
been a blind and deaf man on the field of Waterloo on 
that day which gathered the armies of a continent in bat- 
tle. Around this man musket and cannon balls might 
have fallen like hail-stones, the war-cries of contending 
armies, the shrieks of wounded horses and groans of dying 
men might have filled the air, but seeing nothing, hearing 
nothing, he would have been as calmly indifferent as if no 
alarm of war had ever disturbed the peace of the world. 
His ignorance of the strife, however, and calmness in the 
midst of it, would not have made that day any the less 
bloody or any the less decisive in its influence upon the 
history of Europe; and no more does the indifference of 
unspiritual men render less real or less momentous that 
spiritual warfare always waging in human hearts between 
the powers of light and darkness. 

The Christian is alive to the fact that there is war be- 
tween heaven and hell for mastery over the souls of men; 
and he is looking upon this unseen warfare, not as a mere 
spectator, but as a hero in the strife, as one who knows 
the agony of the battle, and who realizes what are to be 



LOOKING AT THINGS NOT SEEN. 



299 



the awful or glorious issues of the conflict. He knows that 
this war between good and evil in human souls, which be- 
gan in the garden of Eden, shall never cease till the day 
when God ascends' the throne of judgment. He knows, 
when the appointed time is come, that, from before the 
consuming fire, the white heat of divine wrath, the legions 
of darkness, panic-stricken through all their ranks, shall 
flee away into outer darkness, while heaven's lightnings 
smite them with pangs of the second death, and heaven's 
dread thunderings hurry them on towards the abodes of 
despair; and that then, the triumphant hosts of the re- 
deemed, in the light of the smile of God, with the joy of 
conquerors in their hearts and the song of conquerors on 
their lips, shall follow the Captain of their salvation into 
the city of God. In the ranks of this army of the Lord, the 
Christian desires and intends to have a place on that day. 
For this he fights the good fight of faith, daily warring a 
good warfare, looking always at the things which are not 
seen. 

2. In the spirit world are other realities than those of 
battle. Here are tre/asures of divine truth and grace, 
riches of faith and hope and love, wealth of holy affections 
and principles, spiritual treasures, heart riches, soul 
wealth. There are those who scorn this kind of wealth. 
They contemn those who esteem the merchandise of it bet- 
ter than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof 
than fine gold. They count the time spent in gathering 
this treasure, which is more precious than rubies, as time 
wasted. They do not appreciate any possessions that have 
not a market value. But a true Christian desires above all 
things to be rich towards God. He keeps always in view, 



300 



LOOKING AT THINGS NOT SEEN. 



as the highest attainment possible to man, that Christlike- 
ness of character to which he is called in the gospel ; and he 
seeks every day to abound in the virtues and graces that 
make the soul rich forever. He may never have a fortune 
in money and yet be content, but he cannot count himself 
happy unless he is entering into possession of more and 
more of that wealth with which the heavenly Father dow- 
ers His children. Looking at the things which are not 
seen, he is giving all diligence to add to his faith the spirit- 
ual treasures that constitute the imperishable wealth of an 
immortal soul. 

3. In the spirit world is spiritual blessedness. Here 
is a peace that is not dependent upon circumstances and a 
joy that has its source in a sphere above the world which 
is seen, and that is not affected by its' changes. Unspiritual 
men may have domestic happiness, the pleasures of sense 
and imagination, and many social enjoyments; but how- 
ever perfect these may be, and however completely they 
may fill man's capacity for such kinds of enjoyment, they 
do not and cannot meet the necessities of his higher nature, 
and they can never give permanent blessedness to a human 
soul. Man's spiritual nature allies him to God, and no 
finite good can fill his capacity for the infinite God. 
.Through faith and love the Christian enters into spiritual 
union with the heavenly Father. Dwelling in love, he 
dwells in God and God in him, and herein he finds that ful- 
ness of spiritual blessedness without which he must be for- 
ever a well without water. This is the blessedness sought 
by those who look not at the things which are seen — the 
peace of God which passeth all understanding, and joy in 
the Holy Ghost which is unspeakable and full of glory. 



LOOKING AT THINGS NOT SEEN. 



301 



4. There are honors to be won in the spirit world, hon- 
ors that come from God. The chief captains and kings of 
men are called honorable and are counted great; but the 
least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than they, and is 
crowned with greater honor. What is the glory that is 
sought by those who look only at the things which are seen^ 
Is it anything more than the plaudits of the multitude? 
Success crowns an enterprise that only a genius could have 
planned and a hero could have executed ; and men cry "well- 
done ;" this is honor. The shout of a: nation, and the hero's 
name in the air; this is glory. But there falls upon the 
listening spirit of the good man a voice from heaven, say- 
ing "well-done ;" it is the voice of God; and the tones are 
the prophecy and pledge of a crown that never fades, a 
throne in the skies, a glory that only God can give and that 
is eternal. The honor that comes from men is only a 
breath of praise that may change to-morrow into hisses 
and curses. The honor which comes from God makes us 
kings and priests forever in the celestial city; and this 
honor, despised by those who look only at the things 1 which 
are seen, the Christian seeks as the chief end of life. 

5. But the all in all of the unseen world is God. In 
that august name we have the substance and glory of all 
spiritual realities, the source of all spiritual honors and 
riches and blessedness. He, therefore, who looks at the 
things which are not seen, beholds' the Invisible and en- 
dures as seeing Him. There are men "who say in their 
hearts there is no God." There are men who assent to the 
fact of His existence, but are practical atheists. They are 
without God in the world. He is not in all their thoughts. 
They exclude him from the whole realm of desire and 



302 



LOOKING AT THINGS NOT SEEN. 



motive and love in which they live and move and have 
their being. He is' to them as if He were not. But to the 
spiritually minded man, the one fact of which he is most 
intensely conscious is the fact the God is. To this fact 
every word of his lips and every work of his hands has ref- 
erence. The will of the unseen God is his supreme law; 
the presence of the Invisible, the impassable barrier be- 
tween him and iniquity; the love of God, the monarch 
passion of his soul, the grace of God, his most precious 
treasure, and the favor of God his chief joy. By the car- 
nally minded God is in every sense unseen, by the spirit- 
ually minded He is seen everywhere and in all things, 
immanent in every event of history, in every object of na- 
ture ; the underlying reality of all that is. In the fullest 
sense of the words God fills the whole field of the Christ- 
ian's vision. 

6. "The things which are not seen are eternal." The 
Christian hero, victorious in the good fight of faith, is 
crowned with fadeless honor. Throughout eternal ages 
his spiritual foes shall gain no advantage over him. What- 
ever their craftiness and power, they shall never pluck one 
star from his crown of glory. Napoleon, once conqueror 
of Europe, donor of thrones and kingdoms to whom he 
would, died discrowned himself, an exile and a prisoner; 
but the Christian conqueror inherits immortal glory and 
honor in the eternal city. 

Spiritual riches, garnered in the heart of the glorified 
saint, are imperishable and incorruptible. The priceless 
wealth of pure affections and holy principles and joyous 
experiences, the heritage of the good man in heaven, is 
not subject to change or accident. Rich towards God when 



LOOKING AT THINGS NOT SEEN. 



303 



he enters heaven, he shall increase in riches forever and 
forever. 

Spiritual blessedness is eternal. Summer showers sup- 
ply the streams of earthly joy, that flow merrily enough to- 
day but to-morrow dry up and disappear. Spiritual bles- 
sedness is a river, flowing from the inexhaustible fountains 
of divine joy and that deepens and widens as it flows for- 
ever on. Earthly joy is but the flickering light of a taper, 
soon extinguished. Spiritual blessedness is the light of 
that sun which shines with undimmed splendor through 
everlasting ages. 

God, the immortal, who inhabiteth eternity, the same 
yesterday, to-day and forever, is the stability of the unseen 
world and the pledge of its permanence. He is the sun 
without variableness or shadow of turning whose shining 
is its glory. His infinite blessedness is the source of its 
everlasting joys. The riches of His wisdom and goodness, 
His love and grace, constitute its imperishable wealth. 
He, the eternal and unchangeable, is the life and portion of 
every spiritual man. Now he is seen by His saints who are 
still in the flesh, through a glass darkly; in heaven they 
shall see Him face to face, and by the power of that bea- 
tific vision, they shall be changed from glory to glory, and, 
in Him shall find eternal life and blessedness. 

Brethren, if you are wholly occupied by material and 
temporal interests; if your minds are filled with earthly 
thoughts' and plans; if your hearts are possessed by worldly 
desires and loves; if you are ignoring the pure affections 
and holy principles that are the strength and glory of true 
manhood, then you are no more fulfilling the divine pur- 
pose in your creation than the ship is serving the ends of 



304 



LOOKING AT THINGS NOT SEEN. 



her builder when she is sunk to the bottom of the sea. 
Alas ! how many of you aspire to nothing better than suc- 
cess in worldly business or the enjoyment of worldly pleas- 
ure, and are insensible to the influences by which God 
would lift you up into the higher life of a genuine spiri- 
tuality. You were made on a nobler plan and are greater 
beings than the course you are pursuing would indicate. 
You are dwarfing and degrading your souls by shutting 
them within the narrow limits of a life bounded in its 
aspirations by the world that is seen and temporal. 

Brethren, whose spiritual eyes have been opened, abide 
in the habit of looking at the things which are unseen and 
eternal. Concentrate thought and desire and love upon 
God; seek the riches with which He dowers the soul, the 
honors with which He crowns the heirs of heaven, the bless- 
edness with which he fills the hearts of believers. Gather 
from daily contact with spiritual realities strength for 
duty, comfort in sorrow, courage in battle, hope in dark- 
ness, fortitude in trouble. Give all diligence to amass 
great stores of spiritual wealth ; to win great honor in the 
service of God and to secure that inheritance which is' in- 
corruptible and undeflled and that fadeth not away. 
"Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life." 



SERMON XXL 



ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION. 

"And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray 
ttod your whole spirit and soul and ibody toe preserved blameless 
unto the coming of our iLord Jesus Christ. 

"Faithful is 1 he that calletih you, who also will do it." I Thes- 
ealonians v: 23-24. 

All Christian churches hold that, in every case, the en- 
tire sanctification of believers antedates their entrance into 
Heaven. With perfect unanimity they affirm that no man 
in whose heart is the least defilement of sin can go through 
the gates into the city of God: and with like unanimity 
they affirm that great multitudes have gone up from earth 
into that holy city. There is no difference of opinion 
among them, therefore, as to the fact that divine grace can 
and does, at some time, in some way, cleanse human 
hearts from all sin and sanctify them wholly. 

From this point of agreement, however, their beliefs 
diverge. The church of Kome holds that, with rare ex- 
ceptions, this purification and perfecting of the saints is 
wrought after death in the blaze of purgatorial fires. Cal- 
vinistic and semi-Calvinistic churches hold that this 
completion of the work of grace in the believer's experi- 
ence is effected in the hour of death ; and seldom, if ever, 
before. The Methodist church, from the beginning, has 
held that, while the majority of Christians may not be en- 
tirely sanctified until their dying hour, it is nevertheless 
the privilege of every one of them to enter into this expe- 
rience during the present life; and that, as a matter of 



30G 



ENTIRE s A N C T I F IOATION. 



fact, many have done so, and have lived in its enjoyment 
for years together. 

That the teaching of Methodism on this subject is the 
teaching of Christ and His apostles there has never been 
in my mind the shadow of a doubt. ~No one is hardy 
enough to assert that the standard of character and conduct 
that Jesus has set before us is lower than perfect love to 
God and uniform obedience to His commandments. There 
never fell from His lips a single word that can be con- 
strued into an excuse for our cherishing one impure thought 
or desire or love, or speaking one sinful word or doing one 
sinful deed. The incorporation of His sermon on the 
mount in one's character and life implies nothing less than 
the sanctification of his entire manhood. In His inter- 
cessory prayer, He asked that His disciples might be one 
with Him as He is one with the Father; and sanctifica- 
tion, holiness of heart, beyond that which is involved in our 
being spiritually one with Christ is not conceivable. Be- 
tween that sermon, preached at the beginning of His minis- 
try, and this prayer, offered at its close, His whole life 
was devoted to enforcing upon men the necessity of at- 
taining the holiness herein set before them ; and whoever 
affirms that Jesus demanded of men that they be and do 
that which they cannot possibly be or do, is guilty of fla- 
grant impiety. 

The apostles taught as they were inspired by the Holy 
Ghost, and their teaching is in harmony with that of 
Christ. Consider the text : "And T pray God that he sanc- 
tify you wholly, and preserve your whole spirit and soul 
and body blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesns 
Christ." Unquestionably, to be sanctified wholly and to 



ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION. 



307 



be preserved blameless throughout spirit and soul and body 
is nothing less than salvation from all sin, purity of heart, 
holiness of character and conduct. It may be thought by 
some that this prayer is only an expression of the apostle's 
conception of a spiritual state greatly to be desired, but 
which, like many other desirable things, is unattainable. 
There might be some show of reason for entertaining this 
thought but for the fact that the apostle guarded against 
it by the positive declaration following immediately after 
the prayer: "faithful is he that calleth you, who also will 
do it." 

But, in preaching to a Methodist congregation it ought 
not to be necessary for me to argue the possibility of the 
experience known among us as entire sanctiflcation. All 
who have any right to call themselves Methodists, are at 
one as to such possibility ; hut while we agree thus far, here 
we begin to separate. There are those of us who cherish 
one theory as to when and how believers enter into the 
experience of entire sanctiflcation, and those who are ar- 
dent supporters of another theory; and I very much fear 
that, in the unseemly heat of the controversy that has raged 
around these theories, large proportion of the excited dis- 
putants have lost sight of the infinitely important thing 
about which they have been wrangling. The unholy spirit 
that has characterized the controversy concerning holiness 
is one of the saddest and most disheartening phases of our 
recent church history. The contentions by which it has 
been attempted to establish one or another theory on the 
subject have divided our people into opposing factions, 
have brought the doctrine of holiness itself into disrepute 
and have resulted in untold damage to many souls ; and it 



308 



ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION. 



is with the earnest desire to contribute somewhat towards 
harmonizing the warring factions in our Israel that I 
preach to you now upon entire sanctification. 

There are those who contend that all regenerate souls 
are entirely sanctified; that the Holy Spirit does no im- 
perfect work; that, in regenerating a penitent believer he 
completely transforms him from a carnal into a spiritual 
man, so that nothing is left in his heart that is evil in the 
sight of God. There are those who hold that, while the 
work of sanctification begins in regeneration, it is not com- 
pleted in any instance until after a longer or shorter pro- 
cess of spiritual growth, and that it is the final issue of such 
growth. There are still others who teach that in regener- 
ation, the believer experiences nothing more than the par- 
don of sin and cleansing from the defilement consequent 
upon his own transgressions ; that the carnal mind, origi- 
nal sin, inherited depravity, remains in him intact, and is 
to be gotten rid of no-otherwise than instantaneously, by a 
second work of grace, subsequent to regeneration, differing 
from it, not only in degree but in kind. 

These are the theories that have divided the ministry 
and membership of the church, and the disputes about 
which have resulted in no little confusion and much hurt 
to many souls. Is either one of these theories wholly 
false, and to be repudiated in its entirety? I think not. 
Does either one of them embody the whole truth in regard 
to the work of entire sanctification? I am sure that it 
does not. Each of them is true in its application to cer- 
tain individuals: or, in other words, there are Christians 
who have experienced entire sanctification in accordance 
with each of these theories ; but, whoever advocates either 



ENTIRE SAN CTIFI CATION. 



309 



one of them as exclusively true ignores that great, funda- 
mental truth by which alone the truth that is in them all 
may be harmonized — the very truth that lies at the basis 
of our Methodist theology. 

The one thing which more than any other differences 
Methodism from Calvinism is the truth, held firmly by us 
all, that from the beginning of the work of salvation in the 
penitent's experience, through each of its stages until it is 
completed in the glorification of the saint in heaven, there 
are two agents, God and man : and that the saving process 
goes forward only as these two agents actively co-operate. 
Man is saved only so far as he works out his own salvation 
while God works in him to will and to do. 

The work of God in saving men is wrought by the instru- 
mentality of the truth as it is in Jesus. It is by the truth 
that the Holy Spirit reproves of sin ; by the truth that He 
leads the sinner to repentance ; by the truth that He regen- 
erates, and by the truth that He sanctifies. But mark you, 
it is only by so much of the truth as a man receives into 
his knowledge and his faith that the Spirit does or can per- 
form any saving work in his experience. Truth that is 
not known, or that is not believed to be truth, cannot be 
employed by the Spirit in the conversion of a sinner or the 
eanctification of a believer. 

The Spirit works conviction in the sinner's heart by the 
truth that he receives; and, because men differ as to the 
measure of truth they receive, and as to the whole-hearted- 
ness with which they receive it, they differ as to the depth 
and intensity of their conviction of sin, and, of necessary 
consequence, as to the thoroughness of their salvation from 
sin. Little or no account is taken of this obvious fact by 



310 



ENTIRE SASCTIFICATIOX. 



those who advocate this or that exclusive theory concern- 
ing entire sanctification. I am quite sure that if we hold 
fast to this fact, we shall find common ground upon which 
we may all stand and advocate the doctrine of entire sancti- 
fication in perfect harmony with each other. 

Here is one who has been carefully taught the scripture 
doctrine of sin: who, so far as mere intelligence is con- 
cerned, knows what that doctrine is: who perceives clearly 
that sin lies back of sins ; that all actual transgressions are 
but manifestations of its exceeding sinfulness ; that it per- 
vades the unrenewed soul ; poisons its fountains of thought 
and feeling; corrupts its affections; pollutes its principles 
and alienates it from God. Under some appeal from the 
pulpit, which is in demonstration of the Spirit, all this 
truth, that has been latent in. the intellect, becomes quick 
and powerful and sharper than a two-edged sword ; pierceb 
the sinner's heart ; alarms his conscience, smites him down 
under an overwhelming conviction of guilt and unclean- 
ness, and awakens him to his need of a salvation that is 
immeasurably more than the forgiveness of past sins or 
cleansing from the defilement that has resulted from them, 
— a salvation that is nothing less than a complete renewing 
and sanctification of his whole spiritual manhood. Under 
the stress of this conviction, he cries to God, not only for 
pardon and cleansing, but for a new heart and a right 
spirit. By faith he lays hold upon Christ as the Saviour 
who ministers this great salvation; in importunity of de- 
sire prays for it ; with unquestioning confidence looks to 
receive it ; and according to his faith it is unto him. He 
is pardoned, regenerated and wholly sanctified in the same 
moment. 



ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION. 



311 



This, I am sure, is the divine ideal of a true conversion ; 
that birth from above whereby a penitent sinner becomes a 
child and heir of God; that regeneration which St. John 
had in mind when he wrote: "whosoever is born of God 
doth not commit sin ; for his seed remaineth in him ; and he 
cannot sin, because he is born of God." It cannot but be 
that God wills the believer's entire sanctification in the 
very hour he is converted, just as truly as at any subse- 
quent period, and, so willing, it is inconceivable that he ar- 
bitrarily adjourns the work of a regenerate man's entire 
sanctification to a time subsequent to his regeneration. If 
this work is not wrought in any man's experience when he 
is born of the Spirit it is only because, in his ignorance of 
his need of it, he does not seek it, and does not exercise the 
faith in response to which the believer is entirely sancti- 
fied. God wills the entire sanctification of every regener- 
ate man at the time of his regeneration ; and in the case of 
the one I am describing there is perfect accord between the 
will of God and the will of him who is seeking to be saved, 
— a co-operation of the two to this end that issues in an 
entire sanctification that is co-etaneous with regeneration. 
If all men were fully receptive of the truth as it is in Jesus, 
and acted in harmony with the truth received, this would 
be the uniform experience of those who are born of the 
Spirit. Unhappily, this is not the case, and, therefore, not 
many are wholly sanctified when they first believe. Never- 
theless, that some are, no one who has had much exper- 
ience in the cure of souls can doubt. For evident reasons 
the instances are rare, but they are sufficiently frequent 
and marked to furnish some foundation for the theory 
that they who are regenerated are entirely sanctified also. 



312 



ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION. 



But here is one, whose knowledge of the Bible doctrine 
of sin is very imperfect. He knows that falsehood and dis- 
honesty and the evil spirit in his heart from which they 
proceed are sinful in the sight of God. While, listening to 
some appeal from the pulpit, accompanied by the power of 
the Holy Ghost, this man's conscience is quickened, his 
heart is alarmed and he is bowed down before God under a 
heavy sense of guilt. What troubles him, however, is not 
sin, but sins ; not the depravity in which his transgressions 
originate, but the transgressions ; not the corruption of his 
moral nature in which his bad passions are rooted, but 
these bad passions. What he longs for is deliverance from 
the specific evils for which conscience reproaches him. He 
cries to God for this salvation ; believes upon Christ as his 
Saviour, and according to his faith it is unto him. His sins 
are forgiven, and he is a new man down to the depth of his 
convictions and up to the height of his faith. He loves 
God, and, so far as he knows the divine will, conforms his 
inner and outer life to its requirements. To this extent he 
is a sanctified man, but he is not wholly sanctified. He 
has a genuine experience of saving grace ; but the work of 
salvation is as yet incomplete. 

He is not conscious of this fact, however. That there is 
any evil thing in his heart he does not realize. That there 
is any further work of grace necessary to save him from 
sin does not occur to him at the time of his conversion, and 
may not for a long time after. But, by so much as he is 
faithful to the grace given him, by so much does the light 
of divine truth shine more clearly upon him ; and, in time 
he wakes to the fact that pride and covetousness lurk in his 
heart; defile his spirit and mar his Christian character. 



ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION. 



313 



That God hates these evils he knows, and under the influ- 
ence of the Holy Spirit, this imperfect Christian bewails 
the sins that infest his spiritual nature. He intensely 
longs for deliverance from them ; the whole strength of his 
will is arrayed against them ; he beseeches God in Christ's 
name to cleanse him from them; believes upon Christ for 
this salvation, and, according to his faith it is unto him. 
Pride and covetousness die out of his heart, and he rejoices 
perhaps in what he thinks is entire sanctification. 

But alas ! "who can understand his errors ?" Who has 
reached the point at which his spiritual insight is so perfect 
that it is no longer necessary for him to pray with the 
psalmist, "cleanse thou me from secret faults" ? The man 
whose Christian experience we are considering, happy in 
the love of God, believing himself wholly saved from sin ; 
faithful to the grace bestowed upon him, as the light of the 
truth, as it is in Jesus shines more clearly upon him, finds 
that subtle forms of selfishness, the presence of which in 
his heart he did not suspect, are defiling his spirit, pervad- 
ing and tainting with sin, his most pious deeds. Humil- 
iated and alarmed by this discovery, he seeks to be deliv- 
ered from the selfishness he bewails, and is saved, not only 
from its power, but from its very presence. 

Experiences along this line may mark his heart-history 
for many years ; and, so by degrees, as the truth more and 
more reveals to him his need, and he works out his own sal- 
vation while God works in him, he goes on towards perfec- 
tion, until the day when every evil thing is taken out of his 
heart and perfect love to God and pure love to the neighbor 
possess his soul. 
(20) 



314 



ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION. 



That it is by a process like this that many enter into the 
experience of entire sanctification no one can doubt who is 
at all familiar with the work of grace in human souls. 
From long and close contact with the spiritual life of 
Christians I am satisfied that this is the way by which the 
majority of those who are wholy sanctified in this life as- 
cend to the sublime heights of Christian perfection. It is 
true that after a succession of such experiences as I have 
described, there cannot be in the very nature of things any 
hasty and confident profession of entire sanctification. 
One who has come into this holy estate through a gradual 
discovery made to him of evils in his heart of which he was 
previously ignorant, and has time and again thought him- 
self rid of all sin only to learn afterwards that he was mis- 
taken, cannot but be too profoundly humble to assert for 
himself the highest spiritual state attainable here below; 
and from this class of saints such a profession is rarely 
heard. Nevertheless, much the larger number of those 
who are manifestly the saintliest of God's people on earth, 
have reached the spiritual altitudes where they daily walk 
with God by such steps as I have indicated. 

It was thus that Peter was entirely sanctified. Even af- 
ter that wonderful baptism of the Spirit which came upon 
him on the day of Pentecost he was so thoroughly possessed 
by an unchristian, sinful race prejudice that it required 
nothing less than a vision from heaven to make him willing 
to preach the gospel to a Gentile. And after this, he was 
still so far under the dominion of a mean, cowardly, man- 
fearing spirit that when certain Jewish Christians who had 
not been enlightened as he had been came down to Antioch 
he dissembled in their presence, sinned against the clearer 



ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION. 



315 



light that had shone upon him and refused, while in their 
presence, to eat with the Gentile Christians with whom he 
had previously communed at the Lord's table. Paul re- 
buked him, for he was to be blamed. Doubtless he repent- 
ed of his sin, and was delivered from his moral cowardice 
as he had been from the wicked Jewish prejudice that once 
ruled in his heart. 

But do all who enter into the experience of entire sancti- 
fication after regeneration approach it in this way? I 
think not. There are those to whom, at some crisis in their 
religious life there comes a full discovery of their inherent 
evils, and a profound sense of their immediate need of a 
complete cleansing from sin. They are overwhelmed by 
the fact that though they have enjoyed the witness of the 
Spirit that they were the children of God they have never 
loved Him perfectly ; have never been delivered from pride, 
from worldly ambition, from selfishness, and have never 
fully possessed the mind that was in Christ. Moved by 
this conviction, they have intelligently and earnestly sought 
to be wholly sanctified ; have given themselves in an unre- 
served consecration to the Lord ; have believed upon Christ 
as their present, all-sufficient Saviour, and have found the 
great salvation they sought. All evil has been cast out of 
them ; their whole hearts are possessed by pure love ; and 
dwelling in love, they dwell in God and God in them. 

Many have testified that they have had this experience ; 
and, while the majority of those who have thus testified, as 
their after experience proved to them, were mistaken, yet 
some of these witnesses have demonstrated the truth of their 
testimony by saintly lives. None but those who are blind- 
ed by an unreasoning prejudice can doubt that there are 



316 



ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION. 



those who have been entirely sanctified, not in regeneration 
and not as the result of a gradual going on to perfection, 
but instantaneously as the issue of a faith that claimed and 
received at once, the fulness of the blessing of the gospel 
of Christ. 

But are they who have had this experience authorized 
hereby to preach that the theory with which their exper- 
ience corresponds is exclusively true; that the whole Bible 
doctrine of entire sanctification is covered by it, and that 
only they who have sought and found the same blessing in 
accordance with this theory are wholly sanctified ? Most as- 
suredly not. The evils that result from this kind of preach- 
ing are many, and greatly to be deplored. It disturbs and 
disheartens those who are entirely sanctified in regenera- 
tion ; those also who have attained entire sanctification by 
many upward grades and those who are ascending these 
grades towards it. Worse than all this, it results, in many 
instances, in life-long and fatal self-deception. Alas ! how 
many souls have thus been destroyed. Imperfect Chris- 
tians, conscious of many defects, but to whom many evils 
that are in their hearts are as yet unknown, urged to seek 
entire sanctification and to seek it now, have done so, hav- 
ing at the time a real sense of their need of a deeper, more 
thorough work of grace, but having very inadequate con- 
ceptions of the extent of their need ; and, praying and be- 
lieving, they have been wonderfully blessed of God. The 
blessing has supplied all their conscious need ; but has not 
overpassed this measure; nevertheless, under the impulse 
of the joy filling their hearts, and, following the ill-advised 
instructions of their religious teachers, they have made 
public profession of perfect love, and have held fast to this 



ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION. 



317 



profession when, by every token, they were wanting in 
meekness and humility and reverence and that charity 
which is the bond and proof of perfectness. Themselves 
misled and wronged by the unwise application to them of a 
theory of entire sanctification that is true only when ap- 
plied to Christians who thoroughly understand all their 
spiritual need, they have unwittingly done grievous hurt to 
others. The very word holiness has become an offense and 
a scandal to thousands because such as these, while arrogat- 
ing to themselves the name of "holiness people," and claim- 
ing the highest attainments in spirituality are seen to be 
destitute of the Spirit of Christ, captious, fault-finding, 
harsh in judgment and censorious in speech. 

Brethren, no theory as to the method of attaining entire 
sanctification is true in its application to all classes of 
Christians. Life cannot be formulated. You cannot by 
any possible statement concerning religious experience 
cover all the diversities that mark the spiritual life of 
Christians any more than you can by any possible statement 
cover all the diversities that characterize the intellectual 
life of men. The attempt to construct a theory to which 
every part, or any part, of the religious history of all be- 
lievers shall conform is a fore-doomed failure. Controver- 
sies by which it is sought to maintain the correctness of any 
such attempted theory are exhibitions of the very worst 
form of self conceit; and are almost sure to result in the 
controversialist becoming narrow-minded and fanatical. It 
has already come to pass that, in the minds of not a few, 
their cherished theory on the subject of entire sanctification 
has assumed such overshadowing importance that they are 
evidently more intent upon winning others to their way of 



318 



ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION. 



thinking than upon the conversion of sinners or the leading 
of believers into possession of the fulness of the blessing of 
the gospel of Christ ; and both the doctrine and experience 
of entire sanctification have been discredited by their effort 
to identify holiness with a particular theory as to the meth- 
od of its attainment. Men incapable of taking a compre- 
hensive view of any great question, in their intemperate 
zeal for added witnesses to the truth of their contracted 
theory concerning entire sanctification, have persuaded and 
pressed a great multitude to make professions that had little 
or no foundation in fact ; and their persistent advocacy of 
a theory as to how holiness is to be achieved, coupled with 
their own and their convert's manifest lack of perfect love, 
has caused thousands of Methodists to repudiate the very 
doctrine of their church which has been its distinctive glory 
and the source of a large part of its power through all the 
past. If in the hearts of the leaders in this sort of work a 
Christ-like love of souls had prevailed over their pride of 
opinion, and, if the zeal and energy they have wasted in 
the advocacy of this or that theory as to when and how en- 
tire sanctification is attained had been devoted to urging 
believers to leave the first principles of the doctrine of 
Christ and go on to perfection, while we might not have so 
many who profess Christian perfection, we should have 
scores if not hundreds who were really perfect in love where 
now we have one. 

It is high time we were substituting our theorizing about 
those things which at best are only incidental to entire sanc- 
tification, and about which brethren quite as intelligent as 
we, as spiritually minded, as intent upon knowing the 
truth, do not and cannot agree with us, by an earnest seek- 



ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION. 



319 



ing after the same mind that was in Christ Jesus ; and pre- 
mature professions of perfect love by a personal experience 
of its divine power and a life that corresponds to its divine 
purity. Mistaught and misled, children in years and babes 
in Christ, ignorant of the subtle nature of sin and the de- 
ceitfulness of their own hearts, and whose conceptions of 
Christian experience and character are ten thousand 
leagues below the sublime heights of saintliness to which 
we are called in Christ are claiming what a St. Paul never 
claimed, and exciting in many Christians a hurtful, if not 
fatal prejudice against entire sanctification itself. Per- 
haps the greatest evil that has resulted from our conten- 
tions about the time and mode when and by which perfect 
love is attained is that the minds of the people have been 
turned away from the infinitely important matter of scrip- 
tural holiness to this or that theory concerning it, and so we 
have made them such intense partisans of one or another 
theory that the majority of them feel no interest whatever 
in personally experiencing the fulness of that great salva- 
tion which is by faith of Jesus Christ. Hour by hour with 
feelings excited unduly and in most excited language, pro- 
fessing Christians have disputed with each other as to 
whether all believers are entirely sanctified in regeneration 
or grow into this state after regeneration, or attain to it 
by a second blessing, all the time becoming less and less 
concerned about entering into this holy estate themselves. 
The enemy of souls has inspired all such disputes among 
Christians, and doubtless the object of his fiendish ingen- 
uity is accomplished when he succeeds in diverting their 
thought from their glorious privileges in Christ to some 



320 



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particular theory as to how and when these privileges are to 

be enjoyed. 

Brethren, I show unto you a more excellent way. Study 
the Bible doctrine of sin; learn from the word of God its 
exceeding sinfulness, its hideousness and loathsonmess, its 
subtlety and deceitf ulness ; how it lurks unsuspected in 
your desires and motives ; how it defiles your thoughts and 
mars the perfectness of your best works; take into your 
faith the blessed truth of the possibility of deliverance from 
its pollutions and power and presence : grasp the fact that 
this deliveranec is not a mere cleansing, that it is not sim- 
ply having your inner nature swept and garnished, but is 
the occupancy and possession of your hearts by that su- 
preme, perfect love to the Father in heaven which is the 
end of the commandment, which displaces all evil tempers 
and lusts and passions by perfected Christian virtues and 
graces and which finds its fitting manifestation in unques- 
tioning obedience to the will of God in all things. Set 
this standard of Christian experience and character always 
before you; aspire to it; seek to attain to it; by earnest 
prayer, hungering and thirsting after righteousness, 
through faith in Him who is your righteousness, your sanc- 
tification and redemption, press towards it and rest in no 
spiritual state short of its attainment. Yield to no feeling 
of discouragement when fresh discoveries are made to you 
of evils in your hearts now hidden from you. Remember 
that every such discovery comes from the inshining of di- 
vine truth, and that behind it is the divine purpose to save 
you from the evil the truth has revealed to you. Onward 



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321 



and upward urge your way until you stand complete in 
righteousness, bearing upon every element of your spiritual 
manhood the likeness of your Lord. 

Even then, be not over hasty in claiming that you have 
already been made perfect. You are mistaken if you imag,- 
ine that every signal blessing received from the Lord and 
your consequent wonderful advancement in the divine life 
justifies such a claim. You are mistaken if you imagine 
that the consciousness of having reached this exalted spirit- 
ual state puts you under obligation to make profession of 
it, as if silence on the subject were robbing your Lord of 
the glory of having wrought this great work in your heart. 
Little need is there for the perfect Christian to publish the 
fact with his lips. I doubt if it is ever expedient for a 
Christian to profess entire sanctification in a promiscuous 
congregation. The testimony of a consecrated life is in- 
finitely more eloquent and convincing than any profession 
in words can possibly be. He who commanded you to thus 
let your light shine before men that they may see your good 
works and glorify your Father which is in heaven, has for- 
bidden you to cast your pearls before swine or to give that 
which is holy to the dogs. It is not so much what your 
tongue says of lofty personal attainments in grace that 
shall glorify your Lord, but what is daily demonstrated as 
to His saving and sanctifying power by your manifest 
meekness and gentleness and patience and self-denial and 
self-sacrifice and f ruitfulness in every good work. JSTo one 
will believe that you are entirely sanctified simply because 
you profess to be, and, for the reason that you claim to be 
perfect in love, will glorify God on your behalf; but, if 



ENTIRE SANCTIFICATIOX. 



day by day you make manifest the purity and power of 
Christian saintliness, though your lips never proclaim the 
fact, all who associate with you will know that you have 
been made perfect in love and will glorify your Father 
which is in heaven. 

When the apostle who wrote the text was now Paul the 
aged and perhaps the saintliest man then on the earth, he 
wrote, "Not as though I had already attained, either were 
already perfect ; but I follow after, if that I may lay hold 
upon that for which I am laid hold upon of Christ. Breth- 
ren, I count not myself to have apprehended ; but this one 
thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and 
reaching forth to those things which are before, I press 
towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in 
Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be 
thus minded.' ' 

The Christian perfection he was too perfectly humble to 
claim he illustrated in his every day life ; and by an exam- 
ple from which shone the light of every Christian grace he 
made manifest the reality, the beauty and blessedness of 
that perfection as no form of words could possibly have 
done. 

Entire sanctification, purity of heart, perfect love, holi- 
ness of character, Christlikeness of spirit, to these you are 
called in Christ ; to these you may attain in this life ; and 
putting out of your minds all narrow theories as to the 
time and mode of their attainment, set them before you as 
the end for which you live; yield yourselves to the guid- 
ance of the Holy Spirit in seeking them; press along the 
mark by prayer, by self-denial, by self-sacrifice, by daily 



ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION. 323 

following after Christ, until, whether by an instantaneous 
work of grace, or by many upward grades of Christian ex- 
perience, you are sanctified wholly, and throughout spirit 
and soul and body you are blameless and are preserved 
blameless in the sight of God. 

Avoid all controversies on this sacred subject. Prayer- 
fully study the Word of God concerning it ; by the help of 
divine grace conform to its teachings; keep your mind 
open to the light of the truth as it is in Jesus Christ; be 
always intent upon possessing the fulness of the blessing of 
the gospel; never count any high spiritual state to which 
you may attain a finality, but ever reach forth to those 
things that are before; and, whether you are ever able to 
say that you have already attained, whether you can confi- 
dently claim that you are entirely sanctified and made per- 
fect in love or not, of one thing you may be sure, that along 
the line of spiritual assimilation to the image of your Lord 
that marks your earthly experience, you shall go in bye 
and bye through the gates into the city of God and on and 
up from glory to glory through the endless years of a bless- 
ed immortality. 



